


Dusks and Dawns

by GalaxyKitty



Series: Living with Spirits [1]
Category: Danti - Fandom, Septiplier - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Danti - Freeform, Dawns, Dusks, Dusks and Dawns, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, I love hugs, M/M, Multi, Septiplier - Freeform, Spirits, Supernatural Elements, anti is protective, happy ending i swear, he means well, huggles, not really but its the thought that counts, people are going to get hurt but hugs will fix them, some blood and violence but its not bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-01 22:04:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 64,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14530191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyKitty/pseuds/GalaxyKitty
Summary: Everyone in this world has either a "Dusk" or a "Dawn" living with them, although not everyone get's a chance to meet their spirit (Dusk or Dawn). If their spirit is awoken, they co-exist with their person in their mind, being able to privately share thoughts in their mind as well as being able to switch who is in control of the body. While one is in control, the other can see what the one in control is doing. In addition, if the person is in control, the spirit can appear out in their own physical body, but it does require some energy and they cannot stray too far from their person before disappearing back into their shared mindscape.Mark and Jack both have Dusks, Dark and Anti, though they don't initially know about the other. However, when a group of spirits start terrorizing L.A., Mark, Jack, Dark, and Anti might have to work together to stay safe.This is a made-up fanfic with no connection to the real people, you know the drill.





	1. Meeting Dark and Rooming

In this world, everyone has what is known as a “Dusk” or a “Dawn” inside of them. Everyone’s Dusk or Dawn is initially in a state of hibernation; some wake up early when their person is a child, some wake up when their person is an adult, some are never awoken at all and the person lives their whole life never knowing if they were born with a Dusk or a Dawn. Most people never have their “spirit” (it’s not really the right term to describe Dusks and Dawns, but most people call them that to make it easier) wake up, which makes sense as it’s actually quite difficult to wake them up in the first place. Most instances where a person’s spirit woke up, the person was in some type of terrible danger and either the shock woke up the spirit or the spirit woke up in order to protect their person. There are some cases where a spirit woke up without their person in some type of trouble, but most people experience something bad when their spirit finally makes an appearance.

Dusks and Dawns are a lot like people, some are good, some are bad, and some don’t care about anything. Some are kind-hearted and want to make the world a better place, some are psychotic killers and scare the crap out of everyone. What sets apart Dusks and Dawns from one another is the type of energy the two of them have, and as the name suggests, Dusks have dark energy while Dawns have light energy. Dusks have an easier time staying in the night; Dawns prefer to be out in the daylight. However, although most people believe that beings with light powers are “good” and those with dark powers are “bad”, it’s not the case with Dusks and Dawns. Some Dusks are rather nice people, while some Dawns are really conceited a-holes.

Regardless of what spirit a person has, they all function the same way. They co-exist with their person in their mind, being able to privately share thoughts in their mind as well as being able to switch who is in control of the body. While one is in control, the other can see what the one in control is doing, but they are ultimately just relaxing in the part of the mind they share. In addition, if the person is in control, the spirit can appear out in their own physical body, but it does require some energy and they cannot stray too far from their person before disappearing back into their shared mindscape.

Mark has a Dusk. He’s known this for a long time. When he was fourteen, he suffered from terrible nightmares. He would constantly wake up sweating, images of his nightmare still lingering in his mind, and a bitter feeling in his stomach. Once he had woken up from a nightmare only to stumble quickly into the bathroom to puke. It had gotten so bad that he was too afraid to fall asleep; he’d sit curled up on his bed refusing to close his eyes, afraid of the terrible dreams he knew would came back each night. He’d eventually be too tired to stay awake and pass out on his bed, only to be brutally awoken from the next nightmare. Then, one night he had another awful nightmare and woke up hyperventilating, silent tears streaming down the side of his face as he sat up and clutched his head and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block the images of his nightmare from his mind.

_Relax, you’re going to be okay._

It suddenly felt as though someone was there as a calm wave washed over him.

_Take deep breaths…_

Mark loosened his grip and tried to calm down, taking deep breaths and waiting for his heart rate to go down. After a few minutes, though it felt like hours, he’d finally managed to calm down enough to lay back down, hesitantly looking around the room seeing it look normal with no one there either. He couldn’t seem to remember his nightmare either, and usually the images stay in his mind long after he has woken up.

_Don’t worry, you’re going to be okay now. Go back to sleep._

Mark hardly registered that the voice he was hearing was not his own, nor did he realize it was in his mind; he tried to fight the sudden drowsy feeling he had, not wanting to return to the nightmares, but he passed out once more.

He woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, long forgetting what that felt like, and sat up with a yawn. He slept long past sunrise, grateful that it was the weekend. He finally got out of bed and went to the bathroom for his morning routine to be greeted by an unusual reflection. His reflection was a lot taller than he was and it looked like an older version of himself. He was wearing a fancy dark suit with a calm yet stern expression as he looked down at Mark. Mark yelped and ran into the back of the wall, rubbing his eyes and opening them again only to see his normal reflection in the mirror. He guessed his mind was just a bit confused from finally getting a good night’s rest after so long. His normal sleeping schedule without nightmares finally returned and he could sleep peacefully again, though the unusual reflection didn’t return for years.

It was almost seven years later and Mark was invited to a formal get together. He was never fond of wearing fancy clothing, but his friend told him that it would be best if he wore a suit, so he went and bought one.

“Hey, I’m almost at your place, are you ready yet?” his friend asked over the phone.

“Yeah, I just gotta get this suit on. The thing is just uncomfortable.”

“Did you get the right size?”

“Yes I got the right size! I’m not dumb.”

“Oh really?”

“Whatever, text me when you get here, okay?”

“Okay, but hurry up.”

He hung up the phone and walked over to the mirror in his room, looking over himself wearing half of the suit. He had the tie hanging loosely over his shoulders and the jacket folded over his chair. He was wearing the dress pants and the undershirt already, and he thought he looked formal enough.

_I don’t have to wear all this fancy stuff, right? I can just take off the jacket once I get there and ties are overrated anyway._ Mark thought to himself. 

_Absolutely not._

Mark froze. He waited a few seconds, and nothing else happened.

_I’m hearing voices, that’s great._ He thought to himself and walked over to get his jacket from the chair, leaving his tie untied. He passed by his mirror once more and stopped, seeing the unusual reflection from when he was fourteen.

“I’m not going to let you go out there without properly wearing that.” The reflection said aloud, pointing to the half worn suit on Mark.

“Y-you’re… the guy… from my nightmares.” Mark muttered, hardly believing it.

“That would be incorrect.”

“W-what…? No, this can’t be real.”

“That’s what I thought when you were about to leave without properly dressing. You have this suit for a reason, now wear it correctly.”

“That’s not what’s important right now, who are you?!”

The reflection sighed.

“You know about Dusks and Dawns, right?”

“Yeah…” Mark didn’t like where this was going. He’s heard more bad things about people’s spirits driving people crazy and committing crimes than anything good about them.

“That’s because news outlets like to publish horror stories to attract more attention and make profits.”

“Did you just-“

“You may call me Dark; I’m your Dusk.”

Mark walked back over to his chair and sat down, trying to understand what just happened.

“I have a Dusk…”

“Yes.”

“Whose name is Dark...”

“Yes.”

“Really?” he looked up from staring at his lap over to the reflection that hasn’t seemed to move even though Mark moved away from the mirror.

“You were the one who picked that name.”

“What?”

“When you were a child, you said if you had a Dusk, you’d name it ‘Dark’ because it rhymed with Mark.”

“How do you even know that? I didn’t even remember that until now. Wait… did you wake up when I was a kid?!”

“No, I was awoken when you were having those nightmares at fourteen.”

“So when I saw that reflection that day…”

“That was me.”

Mark stood up and walked back over to Dark in the reflection.

“So you’ve been awake in my head for like… seven years?!” He was having a hard time believing this. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“After having those nightmares, you would’ve thought I was one of them that came to life or something similar, and that wouldn’t have helped any of us. Then I decided that, since you weren’t in any danger, it would be best to let you live your life normally for the time being.”

“And what made you decide to show yourself now?”

Dark unfolded his arms that he had across his chest and motioned to his neatly dressed suit.

Mark looked over at his phone and noticed how much time has passed by. His friend would be here any minute.

“Fine… just… help me tie the dang thing.”

“Certainly.”

Ever since that day, Dark has helped Mark throughout his life. He never seemed to care much about taking over the body or doing anything for his own reasons, and Mark was absolutely fine with that. He was stern and nagged Mark about staying healthy, but he usually never got in the way with Mark’s life. Every once and awhile, Dark would take over to scout the area and meet with the other spirits who were around. He’d always say something about maintaining his influence and superiority; apparently Dark was well known for being the guy whose bad side you don’t want to be on. Other than that, he generally kept to himself.

Now, it was seven more years later, Mark was walking out from the kitchen with a bowl of cereal and his attention directed towards the t.v. in the living room.

“Another building was broken into, leaving the interior wrecked and the owner, who was unfortunately still there locking up for the night, was taken to the emergency room for his injuries.”

Mark took a closer look at the images shown on the t.v. and recognized some of the buildings there.

_Oh no… that’s near where Jack’s apartment building is… I hope he’s okay._

_If he wasn’t fine, you would have heard from him by now._ Dark calmly responded. 

His phone buzzed.

Oh.

_You better not have jinxed it._

_That’s not a real thing._

Mark walked over to his phone to see a new text from Jack.

_You jinxed it._ Mark huffed. The text only read “hey.”

_It could be anything._

“Hey, what’s up?” Mark texted back.

“You’ve seen the news about the past few days, right?”

“Yeah, I just heard about another break in near your apartment. Are you doing alright?”

“For now, but a lot of people are moving out or at least leaving until the attackers get caught. Some people heard that it’s a group of Dusks that’s been doing all of it.”

That doesn’t sound good.

“Are you thinking about leaving too?”

“Not sure yet. I packed most of my stuff, since there isn’t much in this apartment, but I haven’t decided where I would go yet. I was gonna ask you if you knew of any hotels or something I could stay at incase things got bad over here.”

Hotels around here were kind of expensive, and the ones Mark could think of were either still close to the area that has the attackers, or were far away from the normal stores and places that Jack would normally go to. Mark thought for a second before deciding his answer.

“You can stay over at my place. I have an extra bedroom, and you’ve been to my house before, so you know where all the nearest stores and stuff are.”

He sent the text and looked back towards the television still going on about the terrible occurrences. He turned it off, not wanting to get any more worried than he already was.

_Are you sure you want him staying with you? I still have my agenda to get to and you haven’t told him about me._ Dark informed. 

That was true, he hasn’t told anyone about Dark. Thankfully, because Dark doesn’t get into trouble and prides himself in being proper, Mark didn’t have to worry about his Dusk attacking any of his friends or messing with his job, so he didn’t have to tell anyone about him in advance. However, the main reason people don’t tell others about their spirits, and why Mark hasn’t told anyone either, is because some people get offensive or their relationship gets ruined if you have a different spirit than one another. The stereotype of Dusks and Dawns hating one another grew into a lot of fighting between the two types, while others become snobs about their type and, for example, if someone has a Dawn, they automatically believe that Dawns are the best and Dusks are vicious, and vice versa. The same goes for the spirits themselves, some Dusks and Dawns don’t like to associate with the other type, so most people don’t take that risk and don’t tell anyone what they have. In return, most people don’t ask one another what type they have; it’s seen as rude to ask that.

Mark has caught himself wondering what type Jack has, if Jack’s spirit has even woken up in the first place, and he’d always hope that Jack would have a Dusk. Sometimes it gets a bit lonely to have a Dusk but you can’t talk about it with anyone. Dark talks to him about Dusks and answers any questions Mark comes up with, but sometimes Mark just wants to talk to another human about it.

_Even if Jack is here, I’m still going to have to go out at night._

_I know…_ Mark sighed. _But I’m worried that Jack’s apartment might get attacked._

_And you might be worrying for nothing._

_I know, but at least I know he’d be safe if he was here._

_How do you know they won’t attack here?_

Mark practically rolled his eyes at that.

_Last time I checked, other Dusks were intimidated by you, and by the time they realized you live here you’d probably already have taken care of them. And I’ve noticed that aura or whatever it is you put around the house each night when I go to sleep as some alarm system to warn you if someone gets too close. You’ve basically made this house one of the safest places to be at._

Dark’s lack of denial told Mark he was right, and he went back to his phone to see that Jack responded to his message.

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to have to put up with me if you’re busy, and I also don’t know how long I’d have to stay out of my apartment for, I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, I live alone here and it’s boring as hell sometimes-"

_Alone?_

_You know what I mean._ Mark continued typing.

“…it’s boring as hell sometimes, you can stay here for as long as you like. Really.”

It took a few minutes, but Jack finally responded.

“Okay, thanks a lot, I mean it. I don’t like admitting it, but it’s gotten pretty unnerving here. I’d be glad to get out of here for a while.”

“You said all your stuff is packed, so can you leave right now if you wanted to?”

“Yeah.”

“I can be there in about half an hour, is that fine?”

“Really? That’d be great! I’ll get everything to the front door.”

Mark smiled as he set his phone down and got up to put away his now empty bowl of cereal and to get ready to pick up Jack.

_It won’t be my fault if he finds out about me._

_Whenever you have to leave for your meetings or whatever, just do it when he’s asleep._

Mark went upstairs to grab his jacket and keys before returned back downstairs to put on his shoes and go outside. Just like he said, in about half an hour Mark arrived at Jack’s apartment and he could already tell that people have left. As he drove up to the parking lot, he noticed another person loading their car with boxes preparing to leave. The apartment building itself was beginning to look like one of those abandoned horror show movie sets. Mark was halfway up the steps before he saw Jack open the door to his apartment carrying two of his boxes.

“Oh hey, you’re here!”

“Of course I’m here. My cars unlocked, you can start moving the boxes in.”

“Yes sir.” Jack joked and fake saluted before maneuvering around Mark to go down the stairs to the car. Mark went inside Jack’s apartment room to see that all of his stuff really was packed and waiting at the door. It was true, he didn’t have much and all of the furniture in the apartment belonged to the building and wasn’t his, so the moving should be easy. All of his stuff would easily be able to fit in the spare bedroom Mark had at home. He grabbed three of the boxes next to the door and walked down to the car.

“Oh, I see, threeee boxes, you’re trying to out-man me, huh?” Jacked huffed.

“No, it’s just more efficient to carry more boxes at a time.”

“Uh-huh.”

Mark put the boxes in the car and turned around to see Jack leaving his apartment with four boxes, although two of them very small.

“Really?” Mark tried to look annoyed but couldn’t hide a smile.

“Hey, it’s more efficient this way.”

After the two of them got all of the boxes into the car, they started heading to Mark’s place.

After the apartment building was out of sight, Jack let out a sigh of relief.

“Was it really that bad?” Mark asked.

“What? No, what made you think that?”

“I heard that sigh, and the apartment building really didn’t look… habitable…”

“Yeah, the staff kind of… stopped… showing up for work?”

Mark glanced over at Jack, eyebrows furrowed in sympathy.

_He had all of his things packed in boxes and he was ready to go the moment he had the opportunity. I’m sure he was purposely making it seem not as bad as it really is so you wouldn’t worry as much._ Dark commented. _And the energy surrounding that building was, to put it simply, unpleasant._

“Well, we have all of your stuff, so you never have to go back there again.” Mark tried to reassure.

“But I can’t just stay at your house forever.” Jack sighed.

“Challenge accepted.”

“Wait what?” Jack stifled a laugh.

“From here on out, you’re allowed to stay for as long as you want.”

“Seriously, Mark, you can’t be serious.”

“I’m as serious as I am about winning that one Mario Kart game against you.”

“Oh, so we’re going back to that? You know I won that game fair and square!”

“Fair and square my ass, you cheated and you know it!”

The two of them were laughing, and Mark was glad he was able to lighten the mood a little.

Eventually the two of them made it back to the house and brought up all of Jack’s boxes to the spare bedroom. By the time they got everything unpacked and situated, it was time for dinner. Mark offered to prepare something for the two of them, though Jack insisted that as long as he was staying, he would help with chores and cook as well.

Chica was equally as happy to see Jack as he was to see Chica again as he gave her a giant doggy hug. She also helped with keeping his mind off of the Dusks that had gotten frighteningly close. Dogs can solve any problem.

And thus, that day marked the first day of many of the two men living together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow italics are hard to do on this.
> 
> This is my first fic on here so I would absolutely love some feeeback!  
> Also, I live for comments, I would love to hear what you guys have to say, and I would love to just chat as well. Got any suggestions? Leave a comment! Want to try predicting the future? Leave a comment? Want to say hello and throw a cupcake party? Heck yeah, leave a comment!
> 
> And if you're ever confused about anything at any time during the story, don't be afraid to ask questions or ask me to clear something up for you, I would love to do that!
> 
> Also also, I have like 4 other chapters already pre written so... I'm just gonna post them on here slowly because italics are hard to do and I used a lot of italics
> 
> Love you all!


	2. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack gets nightmares, and they suck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I broke this chapter into two parts just to make the transitioning easier, so this one is pretty short.

It was the second week of Jack staying at Mark’s house. At the end of the first week, they found on the news that the same suspected group that had been destroying buildings and causing trouble down town made it to the same apartment building Jack had lived in. Thankfully, most of the people had moved out by then and no one got hurt, but it scared Jack when he first found out about it.

“Jack, you’re fine, you moved out before that could have happened to you.” Mark said.

“It’s just… if you hadn’t let me stay here… I could’ve still been there…”

“But that’s not what happened.”

“I know, but it’s just scary to think that could’ve happened to me.”

He was fine a few days later, but now he was coming down the stairs in his pajamas with a distressed look on his face.

“Hey, you okay?” Mark asked as he turned his attention away from the waffle cooker to Jack.

“Uh, yeah, just… had a bad dream is all.”

“Oh, well I’m sure some of these fabulous waffles will make you feel better.”

“If you put ice cream on it, then maybe.”

“You can’t have ice cream for breakfast.”

Jack turned towards Mark with a blank expression on his face.

“Either you take that back or you will be banned from ever having breakfast again.”

“You can’t ban me from eating breakfast.”

“That’s what you think.”

The two laughed it off once again before sitting down to eat some waffles, though they did not have ice cream to Jack’s dismay. The few days that Jack has been here were mainly lighthearted and fun like this, aside from the moments when the criminal Dusks were brought up. Jack hasn’t seemed to notice any of the times Dark had taken over to deal with his business at night, which is starting to lean towards finding out who the criminal Dusks are. Mark was relieved that Jack never suspected anything was going on, but he caught himself wondering what type of spirit Jack had more now that he was staying under the same roof.

_I won’t be able to tell what type Jack has unless his spirit either takes over or creates his own form outside of Jack’s body._ Dark had responded when Mark had asked if he could pick up on Jack’s energy or anything to tell what spirit he had.

He tried watching Jack closely to see if he could find any signs of him having a spirit in the first place. Mark remembered how sometimes he would catch himself staring blankly in one direction while having a conversation with Dark, but when he would look over at Jack to check on him, he would never see anything that would suggest he had a spirit.

Mark decided it would be best if he put his observation on hold after he noticed a reoccurring trend with Jack waking up each morning looking worse than the previous day.

“Jack…?” he asked after the fifth day Jack walked out of his room rubbing his forehead with his eyes closed.

“Hmm?” he mumbled.

“You… doing okay?”

“Mhmm…” he walked over to the medicine cabinet in the kitchen to grab an Advil.

“You sure?” Mark was getting worried.

“Yeah, just nightmares, I’m fine.” He mumbled after getting a glass of water and downing the pill.

“I think I’m just gonna rest for today…” he replied after a while of standing in the kitchen, returning back upstairs to his bedroom.

Mark, as the caring friend he was, worried about Jack. He’s had experience with nightmares and knows how awful they can be.

_Yours were quite unsettling._

_Not helping._ Mark responded before turning his attention back to his phone he held idly in his hands. 

Jack had stayed in his room all day, only coming out for lunch and dinner, and since both of the bedrooms had their own connected bathroom, Mark didn’t seem him leave the room for that either.

Mark hesitantly went to his room that night to go to bed, still worried about Jack. It wasn’t like him to stay hidden in his room all day like that. He really hoped Jack wasn’t going through the same thing he had to go through.

He laid awake for a bit, trying to think of any way to stop nightmares besides getting Dark’s help, but as always he became too tired and fell asleep.

…

Mark barely had time to register what was going on before he felt himself jolt awake and get out of bed.

_Dark?_ He asked as he realized he was not the one in control right now.

_There’s something wrong with Jack._ That’s all Dark said before quickly making his way to Jack’s room and opening the door, finding Jack still fast asleep, but it was easy to tell he was tense. His eyebrows were knitted together and he had a death grip hold on the blankets.

_What do you mean somethings wrong with him?!_

Dark didn’t respond as he placed a hand gently on Jacks forehead and concentrated on breaking the signal. A few seconds later, Jacks eyes shot open and he sat up quickly, breathing heavily. Dark stood up straight and took step back before quickly switching places with Mark.

“Oh jeez…” Jack mumbled and rubbed his forehead.

Mark took a moment to get himself back to normal in his body before sitting down next to Jack on the bed.

“You okay?” Wow, he felt like he was asking this question a lot.

“I am now but… god, I just had an awful nightmare.” Jack was too distressed with the nightmare to question why Mark was there.

“Yeah, I understand, I had disturbing ones as a kid. It’s been so long that I don’t remember exactly what they were about, but I remember waking up crying a lot.”

Jack didn’t respond, but Mark decided to wait in the room until he knew Jack would be okay after this. Jack didn’t seem to mind him being there either.

“How… did you deal with it?” Jack asked after a few minutes.

“Deal with the nightmares?”

“Yeah…”

Mark didn’t think he could explain how Dark put up some type of barrier around his mind to block out the unpleasant dreams, so he decided to tell part of the truth.

“Well, nightmares are just like horror films that the mind decides to put together while you sleep, so I kind of like to think that I’ve been able to put up a type of mental barrier so that I can just calm down and relax instead of fretting over nightmares… or something.”

It was hard to explain.

“So… you’ve made yourself believe that you can block out the nightmares so you can relax… and it works?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s what it is.”

Dark was kind of important too.

_Kind of?_

_It’s weird when you respond to my thoughts when I’m not directly talking to you._

_I hear them, none the less._

The two sat in silence for a few more minutes.

“Do you think… you could teach me how to do that?” Jack finally asked.

“Uh…”

_Dark, do you think you could do something?_

_I could try, although because I don’t have a connection with Jack, in order to get to his mind I’d need to be physically touching him, or more specifically, having a hand on his forehead like I had before._

“Yeah, but… I think it’d be better if we were in my room. It has a master bed and this one is kind of small.”

“…okay… yeah, okay.” The two of them got up and walked over to Mark’s room, carefully laying down on the bed and faced each other, though they both leaved space between the two of them.

“Okay so, just close your eyes…” Mark began explaining, “and just try to clear your mind of the nightmares and any other thoughts.”

Jack did as he was told and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to relax. Mark tentatively placed his hand on Jack’s forehead, and when he didn’t seem upset about it, he added a bit more pressure.

“Just try to think about something you find comforting, maybe a relaxing scenery, like the ocean, or a familiar scent, like fresh rain…”

He could see Jack’s expression slowly start to relax as he listed a few other things.

“And just think of that as a safe spot… while you’re there, nothing harmful can get to you, you’ll be safe there and everything will be alright…”

Mark was surprised with the words coming out of his mouth, given that he was making all of this up as he goes. It seemed to have worked with getting Jack to fall asleep again, and Mark could feel himself drifted off once more.

_Go to sleep, I’ll handle it from here._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love comments and I would love to hear from you.
> 
> Plus I love kudos, those are cool too.
> 
> Remember, same as the first chapter end notes, don't be afraid to comment about anything or to ask me anything!


	3. Nightmares: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dark gets to meet our good friend Anti.

Dark successfully managed to get into Jack’s mind. He opened his eyes to see that he was surrounded by a few trees, though they looked partly withered and unhealthy, probably due to Jack’s mental distress with the nightmares. He then walked around a bit looking for any signs as to why he was having nightmares. Unlike Mark, Jack’s mindscape seemed to be centered more around nature, seeing as the first place he appeared was surrounded with trees. After a bit of walking, he could see a wide open field in the distance along with a particularly large tree. On the right side of the field, there was a large wooden house, looking a bit like a traditional shrine.

Everything was quiet until he stepped out into the open field past the last line of trees, and he felt a sudden surge of energy in the area. Then, a figure appeared in front of him, seeming to be the owner of the energy.

“So, you finally decided to show your face.” The figure grinned and tilted his head, though it was easy to tell the smile was not out of joy.

“If you think you can just come in here and wreck the place, then you’re out of luck.” The smiled faded as the man flicked his wrist as a knife appeared.

Dark noted the strange texture in the figure’s voice, higher pitched and a bit electronic with hitches once in a while.

“You have me mistaken for someone else.” Dark responded easily, though he knew that wasn’t going to persuade the unknown man in front of him.

“Oh really?” the man cackled. “I guess I should just let you go then.” With that, Dark felt the ground below him move as the two of them were transported near the wooden house in the mindscape. Without a second to spare, Dark felt himself get thrown back against the wall of the building with the same green energy he felt earlier pinning his arms and legs.

“Or not.” The man continued.

He seemed to be expecting Dark to do something next, so Dark took the time to get a closer look at the unknown man. The man had a faint greenish grey hue to him, and once in a while he noticed his figure flicker, sometimes looking transparent. There was a red mark across his neck, making Dark think of the knife in the stranger’s hand, but the most notable thing Dark saw was that the figure looked a lot like Jack.

“You must be Jack’s Dusk.” Dark concluded, able to tell that the energy the stranger was using matched that of a Dusk.

“Doesn’t matter what I am, you should be more concerned with what I’m going to do to you. And I’ve had a lot of time to prepare a list.” He growled, before moving his arm back to throw the knife at Dark.

Before the knife could connect with its target, Dark broke the bindings holding him against the wall and appeared behind the Dusk.

“Your energy, although certainly lively, is not very strong yet.” Dark said aloud to the Dusk.

The Dusk whipped around and quickly jumped back from Dark, confused as to how he escaped so easily.

“And based on your hesitance to confront me now and how you were earlier, I’d say you’re new as well.” Dark continued.

“The hell?”

Dark then noticed another energy signature coming from around the large tree, now that he was closer to it. He started walking over to it, leaving the Dusk where he was until the Dusk hastily appeared in front of him with the same waver in his appearance like earlier.

Dark noted that the Dusk had a teleportation ability.

“Don’t you dare…” the Dusk growled lowly, and Dark could see the serious look in his eyes, but also a hint of fear.

Dark glanced over at the tree, noticing the Dusk’s stance become almost protective of it.

“Hmm, that’s where Jack is, isn’t it?”

The Dusk didn’t respond with words, but instead he rushed at Dark, swinging another knife right for his chest. Dark was easily able to deflect the attacks and manipulated the fight so they would get closer to the tree. Once the Dusk realized this, he stopped trying to attack Dark and jumped back once more, keeping himself between Dark and the tree.

“Anti, is that you?”

“Stay back!” The Dusk, Anti, called out, but it was too late and Jack already walked up behind Anti.

“What are you-“ he finally noticed Dark. “I-is that the guy who keeps bringing those nightmares back?”

“I told you to stay back!” Anti growled once more.

Dark made no move to come any closer nor did he show any signs of attacking anyone, hoping they would get the message.

Anti turned his attention back to Dark, keeping his back close to Jack.

“I told you before, you have me mistaken for someone else.” Dark calmly said.

“Like I’d believe you.” Anti spat.

Dark let out a sigh, Anti should be thankful that he could be patient.

“I haven’t once tried to attack you or Jack, nor have I done any damage here.” Dark continued. “But you should be able to tell that my energy signature is different than the one who has been causing the nightmares.”

“The hell does that mean?” Anti responded.

Dark looked over at Jack, then back towards Anti.

“I don’t know how long you’ve been awake, but obviously you’re still new to this.” Dark hummed. “You’ve had these nightmares for a few days now, so you should have been able to notice a reoccurring energy signature each time the nightmares come back. Now, as Dusks are the ones who can have nightmare abilities, the Dusk with the same energy signature as that is the same one causing the nightmares. Now…”

Dark kneeled down and put his hand flat on the ground, releasing a harmless wave of energy to the ground, but could still be easily noticeable. Dark stood back up and continued his explanation.

“That was a sample of my energy. You should be able to recognize that my energy is not the same as the one causing your nightmares.”

Jack looked over at Anti, waiting for a confirmation that what Dark was saying was true, but Anti still seemed hesitant.

“If you need another reason to trust me, then you should be able to recognize the familiarities I have in my appearance with someone else.” Dark added and waited until Jack’s eyes widened in recognition.

“I am Mark’s Dusk, Dark. He asked me to see if I could help with the nightmares, so you should also be able to feel the barrier I have up around the mindscape right now.”

And sure enough, when the two of them looked up, they could also see the faint blackish purple cover all around the area of the mindscape, reminding Jack of a force field.

“So this is what Mark meant by barrier…” Jack said aloud.

Dark nodded ‘yes’ and turned his direction back to Anti, who seemed to be the only one who didn’t trust Mark now.

“How do I know this isn’t some trick?” Anti scowled.

“I already explained how I couldn’t be the one responsible for the nightmares, but if I was, why would I show myself now and tell you who I am so you could easily attack me in the real world?”

“…”

“Anti…” Jack finally said after a moment. “I think we should trust him…”

“…”

“What he said about the energy… he’s not the same guy, right? The energy is different?”

After what felt like a long while of Anti glaring at Dark, he finally relaxed his stance a little and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Fine…”

Jack seemed relieved by this, then looked over at Dark with a notable spark of hope in his eyes.

“So you’re here to help get rid of the nightmares, right? What are we supposed to do now?”

“First, I’d like to take a look at the area in the mindscape that the nightmares have made the most damage to. There should still be a bit of lingering energy left and I’d like to see if I can recognize who it belongs to.”

“Alright…” Jack started leading the way back in the direction of the wooden building.

The entire trip there, Dark noticed how Anti stayed directly between him and Jack the whole time. They ended up going behind the wooden house and arrived at a wooden gazeebo with the line of trees once more, though the wood of the gazeebo and the trees themselves looked broken and likely to start decaying.

Jack and Anti stayed back while Dark walked over to the gazeebo and stepped inside. He placed his hand on one of the wooden pillars, detecting a faint energy that neither belonged to him nor Anti.

After a few moments, he returned to the two waiting and sighed.

“Unfortunately I don’t recognize whose energy this is.” Dark stated.

“Oh…” Jack frowned.

“However, now that I know what it is, I’ll be able to recognize it if I encounter them out in the real world.”

Jack’s face lightened up once more, thought Anti only responded with a huff.

“We can return to a more peaceful area now.” Dark noted before making his way back towards the center of the mindscape, which he deduced was around the large tree.

The trip back was surrounded with an uncomfortable silence, since Anti didn’t seem to appreciate Dark’s presence and it was just weird for Jack to talk with another person’s Dusk.

Eventually, the three of them were underneath the large tree in the center of the area, Jack sitting on the grass with Anti leaning against the tree next to him, leaving Dark standing a few feet away from them.

[*Hey, Look, Picture*](https://galaxykittyda.deviantart.com/art/Dusks-and-Dawns-Ch-3-746477801?ga_submit_new=10%3A1527198740)

“Wait…” Jack hummed, a confused look on his face. “Was all that stuff Mark said earlier about relaxing to keep away the nightmares or whatever a lie? Did we even have to move to the other bed?”

“He didn’t want to reveal that I was here, although we can see it didn’t really matter anyway. However, I do not have a strong enough connection with you to enter your mindscape without physical contact, which is why you had to move and Mark has a hand on your forehead.”

“Oh.” Jack eyebrow’s furrowed as he thought about what that meant.

“If you need a connection to get into our mind without contact, then how in the hell is that other Dusk getting in?!” Anti frowned.

“Because we are doing two different things.” Dark sighed, trying to figure out how to explain a complicated process. “I’m trying to work _with_ you to keep the nightmares out while trying to have both of our energy work in tandem. It’s difficult to get two different energy sources to cooperate and work in harmony, so to speak, which is why it is impossible to do many things regarding two different Dusks or Dawns without having a strong connection, or bond, with one another. However, the Dusk causing the nightmares is trying to work _against_ you, so they don’t need any type of connection in order to hurt you. In addition, I’m fairly certain that the Dusk responsible for this specializes in nightmares specifically, so they would be able to project nightmares without physically being there. It would also explain why you haven’t seen what they look like yet, based on what you said earlier. They may specialize in nightmares, but that doesn’t mean they can appear themselves in the nightmare without physical contact or a connection.”

“Okay, so if the Dusk doing this can make up nightmares without being here, then how are we supposed to find them so we can get them to stop?” Jack asked.

“They would still need to be in close proximity with the person they are affecting, so they should be in L.A. somewhere. I usually go out at night, partly because Mark didn’t want you to notice me while you were awake, so next time I go out I can search for this Dusk’s energy signature.”

Jack hummed in acknowledgement while Anti just had his head turned to the side, refusing to look at Dark.

“How do you know so much stuff about this? Do you do nightmares to?” Anti scoffed.

“I’ve been around for about fourteen years, I’ve had more than enough time and experience to know about most Dawns and Dusks.”

“Fourteen years?!”

“Yes, I was called out when Mark was having nightmares as a kid.”

“So Mark was getting attacked by some nightmare Dusk to?!” Jack gasped.

“No, he just had exceptionally bad dreams. And to answer the earlier question, I do not have the ability to create or use nightmares; I specialize in dark energy and shadow manipulation. However, because I’ve been guarding Mark’s mind from nightmares for the past fourteen years…” he gestured to the visible barrier around the mindscape, “I’ve learned how to work with the mind, which is why I was able to come here and put up the barrier here more easily.”

Dark stayed around for a bit longer, answer questions that Jack came up with about Dusks and nightmares and Dark himself, but it was obvious Anti wasn’t as keen to have Dark around as Jack was.

“I shall be taking my leave now.” Dark said after a break in Jack’s questions. “Mark is probably going to be waking up soon as well. Though, tomorrow I’ll be out looking for the Dusk causing the nightmares.”

Jack nodded and made no attempt to further the conversation. Dark turned around to finally leave, but before he left he added on final comment.

“I won’t tell Mark about Anti nor will I tell him you know about me. I’ll leave that up to you.” He then vanished, his presence leaving the mindscape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! This chapter only had two italics, so I edited this one quickly!
> 
> Comment about all the things, I would love to read them, and don't be afraid to ask questions if you have any!
> 
> Hope you're enjoying the story so far!
> 
> Edit: I added a pic, here's link: https://galaxykittyda.deviantart.com/art/Dusks-and-Dawns-Ch-3-746477801?ga_submit_new=10%3A1527198740


	4. The Search Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack tries to get Anti to work with Dark to find out who's responsible for the nightmares.

Mark blinked his eyes open as he slowly woke up, noticing that he wasn’t alone in the room. He carefully sat up, as to not disturb Jack who was still sleeping, and tried to get Dark’s attention.

_Dark? Are you here?_

_Yes._

_How’d it go? Did you find out anything about the nightmares?_

_Unlike yours, a Dusk is responsible for causing Jack to have nightmares. Tonight I’m going to see if I can find them and take care of it._

The way Dark casual says he’ll “take care of it” was always unnerving.

_So you already have it planned out…?_

_The Dusk left an energy trace that I was able to detect while in Jack’s mind, so I’m going to scout around until I pick up the same energy. That’s what I noticed last night when I was saying Jack was in trouble. The Dusk has been gradually increasing the intensity of the nightmares, and last night it was strong enough to have an outward effect that I noticed._

_With that aura thing you do?_

_Yes, that ‘aura thing’ is a field of my energy so when a different energy steps into the field, I notice. However, because it was a nightmare and not the Dusk themselves, I still needed to get to Jack’s mind to get a clear reading of their energy._

_Does it work on humans? Like, would you notice if a human is trying to break into the house?_

Yeah, Mark was sidetracking, but he was curious now.

_Yes, every person has a type of aura around them, it’s their presence in this world, though a human’s presence is a lot more subtle than a spirit’s. If someone tried to break in, I would notice someone was there, but I couldn’t tell who they were unless I became familiar with their energy. As of now, Jack’s the only person other than you that I’ll be able to tell apart due to the fact that he’s been here for a few weeks. Spirits, on the other hand, each have a unique energy signature that is easy to tell apart from one another. As soon as I get close enough to the Dusk to notice their energy, I’ll be able to recognize it as the one from the nightmares._

_How do you know the Dusk is going to be out?_

_What do you mean?_

_You said you couldn’t tell what type of spirit Jack had unless his spirit had taken control or was in his own body. So you’d only be able to find the Dusk if it was out._

_Oh, well this Dusk seems to have a pattern of manipulating nightmares; they’ve done it for a few nights in a row. I’m sure they will attempt to do it again this night, meaning they will have to be out._

_They’re gonna do it again… are they going to do it to Jack again…?_

_Most likely, since I won’t be home._

_Oh…_

_If I can find the Dusk doing it tonight, then this will be the last night Jack will have to deal with those nightmares._

_Okay…_

Mark didn’t notice that Jack had woken up while he was having a conversation with Dark.

“Mornin’ Mark.” He yawned after sitting up.

“Morning, how’d you sleep?”

“It was…” he thought about whether or not he should tell Mark about seeing Dark and Anti.

“It was different this time… and I could actually sleep. You never realize how wonderful a good night’s rest is until you’ve lost it for a week.”

Mark hadn’t told him about Dark yet; he might have a serious reason for not telling him. Jack decided not to tell him yet to have a bit more time to think through it.

“That’s good.” Mark smiled.

“But now…” Jack got out of bed and stood up, stretching. “It’s time for breakfast.”

…

The day continued as usual, the two playing terrible yet hilarious games, then they took a moment to relax in the backyard, listening to the birds and basking in the sun while Chica ran around playfully. However, the sun eventually set and it was getting time for Dark to go out searching for the Dusk.

It was past midnight as Jack sat alone in his room on his bed.

_Dark said he was going out tonight._

_Yes, I know, I was there._ Anti grumbled.

_What’s got you so upset, Anti? You’ve been acting irritable all day._

_I’m not acting irritable!_ He snapped.

_See! You did it just now! You’ve never acted like this before._

_I’m not doing anything! And why are you so interested in what Dark’s doing, that’s all you’ve been talking to me about all day too!_

_Because he’s doing this for us! And sorry if finding out my best friend who I’m also living with having a Dusk is at least a little bit shocking to me and I’d want to talk to you about it._

_I never asked for him to interfere with our lives! I don’t need him to find the Dusk for me!_

_Then why didn’t you do anything about the nightmares earlier?!_

_Because I don’t deal with mind stuff! I can’t put up some mental barrier to solve all our problems!_

_Then how were you going to deal with the Dusk?_

_I can go out and find him on my own. It’s just as Dark said, if you trust him that much; I know what that Dusk’s energy signature is so I can find him on my own._ Anti muttered.

Jack outwardly sighed.

_Look, I don’t want to fight with you… let’s just calm down and think about this for a moment. You’ve only been awake for about… a month? Maybe two? And I know you don’t like admitting this, but you still have a lot to learn; we both do. Dark’s been around for fourteen years, and he said it himself that he has more than enough experience dealing with things like this. I’m pretty sure you didn’t know about sensing other spirit’s energy until Dark explained it to you too. I think it would be best if you went with him tonight; he might be able to teach you some more things._

_I already told you I don’t need his help._

“Antiiiiiiiii.” Jack groaned and rubbed one of his temples in frustration.

_I can handle this myself._

“Ughhhhhh.” Jack fell to the floor, though it was mainly for dramatics.

_Jack._

“Wahhhhh.” Jack rolled.

_Seriously._

He was about to complain again until he heard footsteps pass by his door.

“Mark’s asleep by the way.” Dark said as he passed by the door.

_We’re gonna go talk to him._ Jack stated before getting up off the floor and quickly walking towards the door.

_What?! No, don’t!_

Jack had his hand on the door and was about to turn the handle before he felt a hand on top of his preventing him from doing so.

“Jack, no.” Anti frowned.

Anti had made his own body outside of Jack’s, though it wasn’t hard to spot the moments of transparency and his form flickering.

“Jack, yes.” Jack smirked before shoving Anti out of the way long enough for him to open the door and run out and down the stairs to where Dark was standing at. 

Since Dark had taken control over Mark’s body, he didn’t have the slight holographic appearance. He was fixing one of the cuffs on his suit, which was weird to see because even though it was Dark, it still looked like Mark. He turned his attention from the cuff to look at Jack, his demeanor looking quite intimidating and the red rings of his eyes proving that Dark was in charge. 

“Jack.” He greeted briefly.

“Jack, you freaking…” Anti glided down the stairs, stopping next to Jack while hovering in the air.

“Anti.” Dark then greeted once more.

Anti scoffed and turned his head, tucking his legs up so it looked more like he was floating on his back rather than staying upright, and crossed his arms.

“Anti, stop being such a jerk.”

Dark didn’t seem to be bothered by Anti’s attitude and continued fixing his cuff.

“I’m about to head off, is there something you needed?”

“Yes, actually, there is.” Jack nodded.

“Jack.” Anti glared at him.

“Hey, I can be serious to.” Jack frowned at Anti before turning to Dark and mustering up as much courage as he could get to look confident.

“Let us go with you.”

Dark looked back up to the two of them, and eyebrow quirked at Jack’s statement. Anti didn’t add to it but was instead glaring daggers at Jack.

“Well… let Anti go with you to be more specific.”

“You don’t even care what I have to say about this.” Anti muttered lowly, mainly to himself.

Dark seemed to think it over for a bit before coming to a conclusion.

“That’s fine. I was expecting you to go to sleep to be sure that the Dusk would have a reason to be out working with nightmares, but I’m sure there are other people being affected as well.”

“Alright.” Jack looked over at Anti, who was set on making sure everyone knew he was against this plan.

“Anti, you’re gonna be the one goin’ out there.” Jack said as he waited for Anti to return so he could take over control.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You gonna go to sleep too?”

“I’m not sleeping until I know for sure that you’re actually going to do this instead of disappearing somewhere.”

“Jack, you know you still need to make yourself sleep even if I’m in control of the body.” Anti frowned.

“Yes, I know, so don’t give me any more reasons not to believe you’re gonna do this.” He then turned to Dark once more.

“Sorry about his attitude, but he’s not as arrogant as he acts.”

“The hell, Jack?!” Anti frowned.

“I got to spend my first few years awake with a teenage Mark, I think I can handle it.” Dark smirked lightly.

Hey, look at that, he smiled. Jack couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the thought of Dark having to watch teenage Mark do stupid teenage things.

“Well, if you’re ready, then we should head out now. We won’t have that long to look for the Dusk once they start creating nightmares.” Dark noted.

Anti let out one final annoyed huff before disappearing, his presence returning to Jack as he gently pushed Jack’s consciousness out of the way to take over. Jack felt the familiar sensation of being pulled backwards when Anti took over as he fell back into the mindscape.

Anti opened his eyes, the one green eye signaling that he was in control of the body instead of Jack. Now that he had the body, he no longer looked transparent and flickering like he was before, though his voice still remained the same higher pitched style.

“Alright, let’s go find this damned Dusk so Jack will stop complaining.” Anti frowned while walking past Dark to the front door, not looking back to see if Dark is following or not.

_If you want to be friends with him, then you’re really not doin’ it right._ Jack hummed. 

_I do not want to be his friend._ Anti rolled his eyes. _What part of any of this makes you think that’s what I want?_

_None of it, which is why I’m telling you that you’re doin’ it wrong._

_You’re a terrible person._ Anti responded, though there was no real force to his words. 

_A terrible person who doesn’t want you to be lonely for the rest of your life._

_It’s impossible for me to be lonely when I’m physically and mentally bound to you._

_You know what I meant._

_Screw you._

_Love you too._ Jack joked. 

Anti made it to the sidewalk in front of their house before stopping to wait for Dark who walked up behind him.

“Ya got a plan, Dork?” Anti asked while lolling his head to the side.

Dark gave him an unamused look before putting his hand on Anti’s shoulder.

“Yes, but for that nickname I won’t tell you what it is.”

“Gee, what a great team player ya are, not even gonna tell me what the hell we’re gonna do.” Anti mocked.

However, before Anti could say much else, Dark’s grip on his shoulder tightened before the two of them fell downwards into the shadows on the sidewalk.

“Wait, what the fu-“

“I told you I specialize in dark energy and shadow manipulation.” Dark cut him off. “I can travel under the disguise as a shadow as long as I stay in the shadows.”

It was like the two of them were floating in a pool of darkness, and when they looked up, they could see everything that was happening above ground in the real world. However, wherever it wasn’t dark or there were no shadows, the area around it was blurry and it didn’t look like there was a path they could travel on.

“Uh…” Anti was getting nervous. “but I can’t… do this… I don’t…”

“As long as I’m holding onto you, you’ll be fine.” Dark responded.

“O-oh.” He reached up and grabbed onto Dark’s arm as reassurance.

With that, Dark took off while keeping a steady grip on Anti, the two of them quickly gliding along the shadows. Jack briefly thought about how it reminded him a lot of Peter Pan and the others flying around in the air.

_This adventure is a far cry from Peter Pan, Jacky._

_What about the Grimm brothers’ version of it._

_Ooo, now you’re talking._

Traveling in the shadows was a lot faster than Anti realized, and soon enough the two of them were standing on top of a tall building around the middle of L.A.

“Now,” Dark started, “we begin the search.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has the most cussing I've ever written ever.
> 
> I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, comment about anything, if you have questions, or if you just wanna say hello! I'm friendly, don't worry! You'd seriously make my day by commenting anything.
> 
> Love you all, hope you're enjoying the story so far!


	5. Nightmare Dusk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anti underestimates his target, whoops.

Jack trusted that Anti would stay with Dark during the search and went to sleep in the mindscape, leaving Dark and Anti the only ones conscious. The two of them were standing on the roof of a tall building in one of the main areas of L.A. It was past midnight, and most people were sleeping or staying inside for the rest of the night, though there were still a few cars diving by once and a while with the yellow glow of the headlights casting a dull beam over the roads.

Dark was standing near the edge of the roof, staring into the distance and occasionally turning his head. Anti stood a few feet behind him, watching in boredom.

“Are we… gonna do something any time soon?” Anti finally asked after Dark hadn’t moved for a few minutes.

“L.A. has millions of residents and there are many spirits out right now, I need a few minutes to analyze the different energy types, especially since they are all muddled together and distant.”

“You’re doing that to everyone in L.A.?” Anti asked, confusing in his voice.

“No, only a small area, about as far as you can see before the buildings in the distance get blurry.” He looked over to Anti.

“However, compared to me, you should have an easier time noticing the nightmare Dusk’s energy.”

Anti stepped forward to stand next to Dark.

“I don’t even know what the hell you’re doin’.” He frowned.

“You’ve been directly affected by the Dusk’s energy multiple days in a row. Whether you realize it or not, you’re a lot more familiar with the Dusk’s energy than I am. I only have the small trace of energy I found in your mind to go off of. You’ll have an easier time distinguishing the Dusk’s energy if you’re looking for it.”

Dark turned his head back to look over L.A., the gentle winds blowing his hair slowly as the moonlight cast a silver glow over him. For a second, Anti thought he looked stunning, before shaking the thought from his mind, grateful that Jack was asleep so he wouldn’t have heard the thought.

“Now, all you have to do is look.” Dark finished.

Anti turned to look over at the buildings and people below, then closed his eyes so he could concentrate on sensing the different auras that spirits were emitting.

“You need to focus on the feeling of all the different auras in the area, as they flow through the air like a gentle river.” Dark hummed.

Metaphorical much?

“At the same time, you need to concentrate on remembering the same aura from the nightmares, and as you look through the energy that you can feel right now, you should be able to recognize the one you’re looking for if it’s here.”

So that’s what Anti did. At first, everything felt like one giant fuzzy ball of energy, but as he tried to concentrate on just the spirits, he began to notice the differences between the Dusks and Dawns. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself as he slowly began to concentrate on specific spirits, trying to tell if they reminded him of the nightmares. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and sighed.

“I got nothin’.”

“I haven’t picked anything up either. So now, we move to another area.”

Dark put his hand back on Anti’s shoulder as he transported both of them back into the shadows of the building they were just on. The two of them moved to another part of L.A., though they could still see the building they were just standing on as a small figure in the distance.

The two of them continued this process for a while, and it was almost two hours later before Anti started getting tired.

“Is this really the only thing we can do to find the Dusk?” Anti sighed as he plopped down ungracefully on next building they were on.

“How do you suggest we find them, then?” Dark asked while walking over to the next building, creating a shadowy bridge across the two roofs.

“I don’t know. Don’t you have connections or something? Ya know a guy who can find who you’re lookin’ for, that kind of stuff.” Anti teleported to the next roof, following Dark.

“No, we don’t live in an action movie where we conveniently know the right people.” Dark replied.

“You’re no fun.”

“I didn’t know this mission was for ‘fun’.”

“Well it doesn’t have to be so damn borin’ either. We don’t even have any snacks or anything to-“ Anti stopped mid-sentence and immediately tensed up. He whipped his head to look off the side of the building and glared furiously. If he could growl, he’d probably be doing it right now.

Dark noticed right away and tried to follow Anti’s eyes to see what building he was looking at. Looks like Anti found the Dusk. Before he had time to ask Anti about it, however, Anti was already off the roof.

Anti teleported off the roof where Dark was and made his way to a building that was off to the side from the rest of the area. It wasn’t too far off, it was an easy walk from the house to the rest of the town, but it meant there were no neighbors to worry about.

“So this is where you live…” Anti grumbled aloud.

Within a few seconds, Dark stood up from a shadow next to Anti, giving him a bored look for leaving him without telling him about finding the Dusk.

“Time to get some revenge.” Anti muttered before marching forwards and teleporting through the front door, leaving Dark alone once more.

Under normal circumstances, Dark would’ve been aggravated with Anti’s lack of communication and his rashness, going straight to attack the Dusk once he found out about it rather than coming up with any type of plan or assessing the situation, but Dark knew this was Anti’s first ‘day on the field’ and didn’t know better. That, and Dark already determined that since the Dusk specialized in nightmares, it meant they worked better mentally and couldn’t do as much damage with face to face confrontation. Then, as soon as Dark arrived at the house, he concluded that the Dusk was alone, which would mean they would be fighting two against one. Lastly, even though Dark doesn’t like the idea of being egotistical, he knows he’d be able to handle anything that could happen in there. Though, if Anti was ever going to join him in the future for other tasks, he’d have to make sure that Anti understood how he was supposed to act. Reckless people were the reason Dark preferred working alone. 

Dark decided to stay back and watch for a bit to see how Anti dealt with the Dusk. He’d step in if anything serious were to happen.

Anti stood in the center of the first room in the house, which seemed to be the largest room as well, and glanced around the room. It was oddly quiet. He looked up towards the stairs directly in front of him and that’s when he noticed the figure walking over and coming down the stairs.

“Ah, I see we have a guest. To what do I owe the pleasure?” the figure said, and as he stepped down the stairs his face became clearer. He was a bit taller than Anti, and he didn’t have much in the way of muscles, but he seemed unfazed by Anti’s appearance in his house.

“Bleed out or die instantly?” Anti questioned.

“Pardon?”

“Oh, wait, definitely bleed out.” He grinned almost maniacally. “For all the shit you’ve done, I’m gonna make this be as long and as painful as possible.”

And that was all the warning the other Dusk got before Anti flung a knife right at his face. The Dusk was surprised at this, almost throwing himself to the side to get away from the knife, but Anti didn’t let up on his attacks. The Dusk bolted towards the stairs and started climbing, but Anti teleported right in front of him, laughing lowly and swiping with another knife. It nicked the Dusk’s cheek before he jumped back down to the bottom of the stairs.

“I take it you’re not a fan of mine.” The Dusk glared.

“Ah, damn, am I not treating you right? Here, let me make it up to you.” He moved his foot in preparation to surge towards the Dusk, gripping the knife in hand.

“That won’t be necessary.” The Dusk said before grabbing his gun and pulling the trigger.

The shot rang through the building, then the room was eerily silent until a soft clang was heard. Anti dropped his knife. He took his hand and held his stomach before removing it to see his hand covered in blood. A small circle of blood was forming on his shirt and was gradually getting bigger. He stumbled a bit on the stairs before leaning on the railing and coughing up blood.

“There’s a saying for this, isn’t there? Ah, yes, ‘don’t bring a knife to a gunfight’.” The Dusk smiled. “And it looks like you lose.”

Anti was clutching his stomach, panting heavily; the shot was pretty bad. He was gonna die. Jack was gonna die. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. He was supposed to protect Jack. Now they’re both going to die.

“Farewell.” The Dusk said before raising the gun once more.

The room suddenly felt heavy as everything stilled. The Dusk looked wide-eyed and nervous.

“What is-“ He looked at Anti. “Is that you? It can’t be. Ugh.” He wasted no more time in pulling the trigger as another shot rang through the room. However, a dark shadow, thick enough to look like a black wall, rose in front of Anti, catching the bullet, before dropping it back onto the floor and disappearing.

The energy around the room got increasingly tense.

“Who is-“ The Dusk was cut off as shadows rose from the ground in front of him before revealing Dark to be there.

“This energy is coming from you?!” The Dusk gasped. Dark gave him no response before raising his hand, another shadow rising from the ground to grab the Dusk’s wrist and twisting it sideways, causing him to drop the gun. Another shadow then lifted the Dusk entirely into the air before flinging him across the room and slamming into the wall. Dark stepped next to the gun and looked down at it.

“You’re weak if you have to rely on human weapons.” He hummed.

The Dusk slowly got up from his place on the floor after hitting the wall, shakily looking back at Dark.

“Though, it’s probably because you specialize in nightmares.” He continued.

“How do you know that?” The Dusk quivered.

“If this was a nightmare, you might be a bit more threatening… but here.” A flick of Dark’s hand caused a shadow to grab onto the Dusk once more and quickly dragged him back over to Dark, suspending him in the air.

“You’re nothing more than a nuisance.” He closed his hand, and the Dusk screamed.

Anti eventually took to sitting down on the step of the stairs he was on, leaning against the railing and still clutching his stomach. He coughed up more blood, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. His body was frantically trying to heal itself, though it couldn’t do that with the bullet still in him. He already used up a lot of energy teleporting around some of the roofs with Dark and then more when he was fighting. His house was a long way from here, he may pass out before he can get there. He didn’t know if he had enough energy to teleport over there. He didn’t even know if he could teleport that far in the first place; he usually kept to short distances where he could see where he wanted to go.

He heard a faint muffled sound in the distance. Wait, why did everything sound like it was buzzing? And when did everything get so blurry?

“Anti? You need to respond.” Dark was kneeling in front of him.

“I feel like shit.” He finally managed to say, spitting out blood that had lingered in his mouth.

“Do you think you’re well enough to make it back to the house?”

“I don’t know, Dorko, do I look like I’m doing great?” he huffed.

“If you’re awake enough for sarcasm, then you can make it.” Dark sighed before picking up Anti bridal style.

“Put me down, ya geezer.” Anti struggled, but it was weak and hardly effective. 

He looked over from his position in Dark’s arms, noticing the Dusk lying on the floor unmoving. Was he dead?

“We didn’t even get ta find out what his name was.” Anti huffed.

“Didn’t seem like you really cared that much earlier.”

“Nah, cause then I would’ve hated everyone else who has that name.”

Anti felt the slowly-becoming-familiar sensation of falling into the shadows as Dark began to bring the two of them back to the house. Anti closed his eyes, trying to focus on anything other than the pain in his stomach. Now that his eyes were closed, the feeling of traveling through the shadows reminded him of sitting on a boat while gently drifting over the water. It seemed as though Dark was going a lot slower and being more cautious now that Anti was basically bleeding out.

“Hey, you can’t go to sleep just yet.” Dark nudged him as he was getting farther away from staying awake.

A few minutes later and the two of them were finally back at the house. Dark set Anti down on Jack’s bed and ripped Anti’s shirt around the wound since there was already a hole there from the bullet.

“Stay still.”

“Don’t wanna move anyway, old man.”

Dark slowly moved his hand up and over the wound as a small shadow followed his movements. Carefully, the shadow moved into the wound, maneuvering around the bullet before pulling it out. Anti hissed as the bullet was removed, then sat up and covered the wound with his hand once more.

“Geez, that hurt.” Anti winced as his energy started healing the wound now that the bullet was gone.

Dark watched patiently as the wound slowly stitched itself back together, though Anti was returning to his more closed-off demeanor now that he was no longer practically dying.

“I’m fine, you can go.” Anti grumbled.

“You nearly passed out from blood loss, you are not _fine_.”

“We can _heal_ , dumbass, I don’t need your help.” Anti growled.

Dark stood up from the bed and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He can now understand why Jack had warned him earlier about Anti acting “arrogant”.

“Fine, if you do not want my help then I’ll go.”

“Good.” Anti muttered.

Anti sat alone in his room for a few minutes, the events of the last two hours replaying in his mind. He didn’t like the idea of relying on Dark for this; he was supposed to be able to keep Jack safe by himself. He was light headed and tired due to using up too much energy, but he could feel the blood drying on his skin and it was getting uncomfortable. Jack would probably bombard him with questions on what happened if he woke up covered in blood as well.

Anti reluctantly got up and walked over to the connected bathroom, peeling off his tattered shirt and throwing it to the side. He grabbed a washrag and began cleaning off the blood on his face, still waiting for the wound on his stomach to fully heal. Since it was taking this long to fix itself, it meant that Anti was really low on energy right now.

He thought back to when Dark blocked the second bullet and stood in front of the Dusk. The whole room seemed to be surrounded with Dark’s overwhelmingly powerful energy. It scared the Dusk and freaked Anti out. He was standing next to Dark for almost two hours before that, and Dark’s energy felt nothing like it was when they were in the room with the Dusk. Was that Dark’s real strength? Has he just been toning it down the whole time?

Anti didn’t want to think about it any longer and finished cleaning off his face, moving to the closed wound on his stomach, though the skin was still red and it looked scarred. Hopefully the scar would disappear before Jack wakes up. He really didn’t want to talk about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you thought that was going to be the worst of it, just wait till the next chapter! But don't worry, Anti shall be redeemed soon! He's a scary biscuit you shouldn't mess with, but you also have to remember he's practically a baby compared to Dark and a bunch of other spirits who've been around for a long time.
> 
> The next chapter is the last one I already have pre-written, so you wonderful people can suggest ideas or prompts to help the story along!
> 
> And as always, I would love to read comments from you! Whether it's a question, a suggestion, commenting about the story itself, or just saying hello, I'd love to hear from you! ^^


	6. It's Dangerous to Go Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He went out alone. Whoops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember what I said in the last chapter's end notes: Anti is practically a baby compared to a lot of other spirits and he hardly has any experience fighting or really anything. But he will be redeemed, I promise! You won't want to mess with the angry biscuit once he knows what he's doing!

The first thing Jack noticed when he woke up was that he was extremely sore.

_Ugh… what’d you do last night Anti?_

No reply.

_Anti?_

Huh, that was weird. Anti usually talks about everything, even when he wants him to stop talking, Anti still talks. Jack got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom, noticing that he slept without his shirt and a part of his stomach was red. It didn’t look too bad, though. Maybe he just slept on it funny. It didn’t seem like Anti showered afterwards either and he felt gross.

He spent a longer time in the shower than he usually did, letting the warm water relax his muscles. After he got out, he dressed into comfortable clothing and exited his room, going downstairs. Mark was in the kitchen making breakfast once more, except… it didn’t look like breakfast.

“Hey, Mark, whatcha making?” Jack asked.

“Jack! You’re finally up.”

“Finally?” He looked over at a clock to check the time, realizing that it was way into the afternoon.

“I was sleepin’ all day?” Jack gasped.

“Yeah, I came to check on you earlier but you were fast asleep.”

“Oh…”

“Hey, but isn’t that also a good sign? If you slept all day then that probably meant you didn’t have any nightmares.”

“Oh yeah! You’re right!” Jack smiled.

_Anti, did you guys find the Dusk? Are we finally done with the nightmares?_

No reply. Maybe he was just sleeping in too. This would be his first night without dealing with the nightmare guy as well.

“In fact, I think you’ve seen the last of the nightmares.” Mark returned the smile.

“Really?! That’s awesome. I was beginning to become afraid of sleeping.”

Dark is probably awake and told Mark that he found the Dusk they were looking for. Probably. Jack wasn’t quite sure what happened. He wanted to ask, but then that would mean letting Mark know he knew about Dark. That wouldn’t be bad, though, right? Mark would understand him since they both have Dusks; Jack would have someone to talk to about this stuff.

But Anti wasn’t responding, and Jack felt like he should talk to Anti about it too.

A timer beeped in the kitchen.

“Oh, dinner is ready!” Mark chimed. “Let’s eat!”

…

Anti didn’t respond for the rest of the day and Jack decided to go to sleep early to try to get his sleeping schedule back to normal rather than staying up all night and falling asleep during the day. While he was asleep, he looked around the mindscape to see if he could find Anti, but it seemed like he was hiding on purpose, so Jack decided he must have his reasons and let him be.

The next day, Jack was getting ready to go out for a walk while going to the store. He liked going out when the sun was beginning to set and it wasn’t too hot, but at the same time there was still enough light to feel comfortable walking around. There usually wasn’t too many people outside; a lot of people finished getting off work and went home while others already finished shopping earlier in the day.

“Jack, are you sure you don’t want me to drive you?” Mark asked as he watched Jack put on his shoes by the front door.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I did this all the time when I still lived in the apartment, and your house is closer to the market anyway.”

“Alright, well, text me if you need anything.” Mark added.

“Geez, Mark, you’re making it sound like I’m gonna get mugged or something out there.” Jack chuckled.

“That gang of Dusks or whatever that was terrorizing the area down town near your apartment is still out there. I’m just worried, that’s all.” Mark huffed.

“Oh… right.”

He’d kind of forgotten that now that he’s lived a few weeks are Mark’s house without having to worry about the gang breaking in. But how could he have forgotten that? That was the whole reason why he was staying at Mark’s house in the first place. It just feels so normal to be staying here… it felt like… home.

“I’ll be careful, I promise.” Jack said with a reassuring smile.

“Okay…”

Jack waved before leaving the house and walking down towards the sidewalk. He walked a few feet before stopping and looking back to make sure Mark couldn’t see him from the windows of the house. He then brought his hands up and hugged himself, letting out a deep breath.

_Anti, I’d really appreciate it if you’d say something…_

Still nothing. Jack looked around, the air was silent and no one else was around, but Jack couldn’t shake the feeling of someone watching him. The idea of the gang of Dusks still being out there… watching… waiting…

_I don’t know what happened the other day… and I’d like for you to tell me some time, but right now I don’t care about that. I just don’t want to be alone right now… I’m…_

Though he didn’t say it, Jack knew that his fear was easy to pick up from the mindscape. He was about to give up and thought about turning back to the house, until he heard a soft reply.

_I’m here…_

Jack let out a sigh of relief and stood up straight, continuing to the market.

The days continued on like that; Jack would walk down to the market about every other day, sometimes buying supplies, sometimes just going to take a relaxing walk, though Mark would still fuss about him going alone and would offer to drive him every time he saw Jack preparing to leave.

Anti started talking more, though he wasn’t back to his usual self that Jack was used to. Anti eventually did tell Jack what happened with the nightmare Dusk, though he left out most of the details, just saying that Dark and he found the Dusk in some house and took care of him. He told Jack he didn’t know if the Dusk was dead or not, but if he was still alive he wouldn’t be bothering them anymore.

Jack eventually found Anti in the mindscape one night tending to some of the damaged trees, slowly getting them back to their healthy green state. They were looking a lot better compared to when Dark first visited.

It was nice for a while, but as Jack knew, all good things have to come to an end, he just didn’t know when.

…

Jack was on his way back from one of his afternoon walks, though he accidentally lost track of time and it had gotten pretty dark.

_You should start heading home, Jackaboy._ Anti said to get Jack to realize how late it was.

Jack was grateful that he didn’t buy anything during this trip so he didn’t have to carry everything back at night. He passed by a few buildings and was waiting at a crosswalk when he felt Anti become concerned.

_Something the matter?_ Jack asked.

_There’s another spirit here…_

_Wait, do you see them or something?_ Jack looked around, but didn’t see anyone.

_No, I can sense their aura… I think they’re a Dawn._

_Oh, do you recognize it or something?_

_No, I don’t think so…_

_There’s probably nothing to worry ‘bout then._

Even though Jack was the one who said that, he couldn’t help but start worrying himself. The crosswalk light changed and Jack quickly crossed the street, resisting the urge to look behind himself. He was still a few minutes away from the house, which wasn’t helping his nerves. But Anti said it was a Dawn, and Dawn’s aren’t usually the ones who stay up late and try to mug people, right?

_What about that fruit stand Dawn that was on the news?_ Anti reminded.

Oh, yeah, that one was disturbing. Looks like Dawns can’t be trusted that easily.

They made it to a park, about halfway to the house, before Anti spoke up about the Dawn once more.

_They’re still here._

_What do you mean they’re still here?_ Jack was confused.

_I think they’re following us…_

Jack does not want to participate in some version of the fruit stand Dawn incident. He really hoped the Dawn following him was just a coincidence and would go some other direction soon.

_They’re getting closer…_

_Anti…_ He was getting scared.

_We might have to switch._

_Where even are they? I don’t even see anyone._ Jack tried his best to look around without being suspicious. He walked a bit faster, just wanting to get home as quickly as possible at this point. Why did he have to get sidetracked and spend too much time outside?

_Jack!_

Anti pushed him out of control, leaving him with an awful head rush. When he came to, he noticed Anti was grabbing onto some type of spear and was face to face with the Dawn.

“Hey there.” The Dawn smirked, yanking his spear away from Anti’s grasp.

The Dawn didn’t seem to care whether Anti wanted to respond or not, as he immediately lunged towards Anti, the spear getting dangerously close. Anti kept dodging backwards, out of the way, but the Dawn wouldn’t let up. Anti was currently at a disadvantage, he knew his knives wouldn’t work against a spear at close range and he couldn’t get far enough away to throw them.

_Can you teleport?_ Jack asked.

_I kinda have to see where I’m going, and the house is behind me._

_Turn around?_

_Never turn your back to an enemy, and this guy is not giving me any opening to try to get away._

He thought back to when he first met Dark while he was attacking him, how Dark had moved in such a way that it got Anti to go in the direction he wanted him to go without actually doing anything but dodging.

The Dawn was using quick but long swings, and he was right handed, meaning the spear started from the right and swung left after each initially swing. Anti ducked under one, then leapt to the right, then jumped backwards and to the right again. After a bit, he got the Dawn to face the opposite direction and Anti was facing the right direction. Now all he needed was an opening; even though he was going to teleport, he still needed a moment for his energy to focus and transport his entire figure.

The Dawn swung once more, the blade nicking his shirt, before pulling back to prepare another attack.

There’s his chance. Anti jumped back to give himself enough space before teleporting behind the Dawn and farther away from him. He didn’t think twice before teleporting once more, gaining distance. He was about to teleport again until something snagged his foot. He looked down to see he was standing right under a street lamp, and what looked like glowing yellow barbed wire was wrapped around his foot. He tried teleporting again, but whatever snagged his foot was preventing him from doing so.

He pulled his leg, yanking on the wire, but it only dug into his skin more. He summoned a knife and bent down to try to cute the wire until another strand of it wrapped around his other leg.

“You’re gonna get it now.” The Dawn was strolling up to Anti, spear twirling in one hand. He then flipped the spear so it was pointed upwards before slamming it onto the ground as the glowing barbed wires started advancing up Anti’s legs until the wrapped around his torso and shoulders. Before Anti had a chance to comprehend what was happening, a jolt of burning pain shot through his body, almost like the wires were electrocuting him. Anti screamed in pain, feeling the barbs sink into his skin as searing hot pain coursed through him.

_Oh my god! Anti!_ Jack couldn’t feel what was happening, Anti was blocking their shared senses, but he could still hear Anti screaming in pain.

“You shouldn’t have ever tried to mess with us.” The Dawn sneered.

Anti was shaking, the pain almost unbearable as his body tried to heal as fast as the Dawn was shocking him. He lifted his head up and glared at the Dawn. He didn’t remember doing anything to piss this guy off, but it didn’t matter now. He lifted his arm up, even though the wires were constricting his movement and dug into his skin more as he moved, and glanced up at the street light. He grunted and threw the knife as hard as he could towards the light, successfully breaking it.

Shattered glass rained down on Anti, cutting his face and arms more, but the light disappeared and so did the barbed wires. The Dawn was obviously displeased and spun the spear in his hand once more before flinging it towards Anti. It lodged into his shoulder, adding to the pain, and Anti clumsily yanked it out with a grunt. He didn’t give a second thought before teleporting away once more, but this time he tried to teleport as far away as he could, regardless of whether he could see where he was going or not.

He ended up in the shadows of some building he didn’t recognize, but he couldn’t see the park he was just at with the Dawn, so he didn’t really care.

_Anti! Anti, are you okay?!_

Anti collapsed onto the ground, leaning against the building and panted heavily. His last teleportation had totally drained the last of his energy and he could hardly feel himself healing. His body was bleeding almost everywhere from the barbed wire wounds and he could still feel painful shocks.

_Anti, we need to switch!_

“No.” Anti growled.

_I know where we are, it’s not that far from the house, I can get us back home! But if we don’t switch something seriously bad is going to happen to you! I know it’s harder for you when you’re in control of the body. We need to switch now before the Dawn finds us again._

“No, you can’t.” Anti hissed through his teeth, eyes squeezed shut as he tried to block out the pain.

_You can’t even stand up! If we don’t switch, we’re going to die for sure. You may have used up all of your energy but I still have mine. I can handle it, Anti, please!_

Anti felt himself getting tired as his consciousness started to waver. Jack took the opportunity to take over, Anti being too weak to fight back. As Jack was finally set in his own body, he felt the terrible pain crashing against him all at once and inhaled deeply. He took a few seconds just to get used to how awful it felt before shakily standing up, a hand leaning against the wall still. He felt Anti’s presence waver and go quiet; he really hoped Anti was okay.

He took a deep breath before pushing off the wall and started to run in the direction of Mark’s house.

“You can’t run from me!” The Dawn shouted behind him.

“Ah, shit.” Jack muttered under his breath.

Wait, he had his phone! He hastily grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialed Mark’s number, cursing when he heard the Dawn getting closer.

“C’moooon, pick up.” He pleaded.

One ring. Two rings. Three rings.

“Hey, Jack, what’s up?”

“Mark! Are you home?!”

“Uh… yeah? Are you okay?”

“I’m being chased by a Dawn, a pissed off Dawn, he’s trying to kill me for some reason I don’t kno-“

“Wait, what?! Where are you?!”

“I’m almost at the house, stay there, but turn off all of the lights!”

“The lights? And, hold on, are you hurt?”

“The Dawn does something with the lights and some electrocution wires or something, just keep the lights off- agh!”

“Jack?!”

Jack started coughing, he couldn’t keep this up much longer. He had to run around all of the street lights, wasting time maneuvering around them while the Dawn kept getting closer. He didn’t even want to think about how much blood he’s probably lost.

“Jack! Tell me where you are!”

“I can-“ he coughed again. “I can see your house. Open the door for me.”

Jack gave one final effort to sprint as quickly as he could to the house, running across the yard and practically slamming into Mark who was standing with the open door.

“Oh my god, Jack, you’re bleeding!”

“Don’t worry about me and worry about the Dawn still out there!”

Mark grabbed Jack and held onto his side as he led him over to the couch and set him down on it. Jack could feel the adrenaline rush finally fading away, leaving him utterly exhausted with twice as much pain. Everything hurt. He felt himself being moved to his side so he was laying down on the couch. Now that the adrenaline was gone, he didn’t think he had it in him to move even his finger.

“Uh, Jack, I don’t… ah, crap.” He heard Mark mumbling.

“Mark…” He managed to get out. “I trust you.”

Jack closed his eyes and rested his head to the side, concentrating on keeping his breath steady and not panicking. He was with Mark and Dark now. He was going to be okay.

…

Mark stood up straight after positioning Jack in a better position on the couch, internally freaking out when he saw Jack’s eyes close and his head fall to the side.

_Mark, he’s not dead; we need to focus on the Dawn!_

_He’s bleeding! There’s so much blood! We need to take him to a hospital or-_

_Mark! Listen to me! Our first priority is the Dawn; if we don’t take care of him then Jack will die for sure!_

_Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh-_

_The faster we deal with the Dawn the faster I can take care of Jack, now go!_

Mark reluctantly agreed and tried to calm down enough to let Dark take over.

Now Dark was the one who was pissed off. He quietly walked over to the front door, watching it as though he could see through it, and waited. He could sense the Dawn was approaching. Then he stopped. The Dawn began moving around towards the back of the house.

That was fine, it didn’t matter to Dark where the Dawn decided to show up; he was going to die either way.

The Dawn’s aura fluctuated. Dark hesitated for a bit, wondering what that meant, until the Dawn seemed to be moving around to the other side of the house. Dark looked back at Jack laying on the couch, his stomach moving slightly with each breath.

He didn’t like this…

The Dawn seemed to be climbing up to the second story, so Dark lowered himself into the shadows and moved up towards Mark’s room.

Something didn’t feel right…

…

Jack heard the back door slide open. Did Mark lock the back doors? Was he the one opening it now? He heard footsteps. No, that wasn’t Mark.

He shot his eyes open to see the Dawn towering over him with a snarky grin. He lifted the spear in the air and thrusted it down towards Jack’s chest; he was gonna die and he didn’t even have enough time to yell for Mark.

He felt sick, his head was jumbled and he couldn’t even tell which way was up. He opened his eyes once more to realize Anti had shoved him out of control once more and was gripping the spear just above his chest, but his hands were shaking. He shifted his hands and pushed the spear sideways, knocking the Dawn over as well as falling off the couch himself. He landed with a thud, coughing up more blood. The Dawn stood up and glared at Anti before going over to finish what he originally was going to do.

His spear disappeared. The Dawn looked around frantically for it until he was violently pushed down onto the ground, shadows wrapping around his legs, arms, and throat. Dark silently stood over him, looking down on him with cold eyes.

“Agck, who’re yo- gah.” The Dawn coughed, shadows around his throat constricting his airway.

“No, who are you?” Dark asked, voice eerily cool.

“Why do you c-agh, care?”

“Because,” the shadows around the Dawn tightened as he was brought up to be face to face with Dark.

“-you broke into my home, attacked my guest, and now you’re interfering with my schedule.”

“Look, I’m not here to mess wi-guh, with you. That guy messed with my order, I’m j-ugh, just here for him.” The Dawn motioned his head towards Anti.

“You’re here for your association?” Dark questioned.

“Yeah, he broke into our headquarters and wrecked a bunch of our stuff!” the Dawn coughed out.

Dark looked over at Anti who was laying on the ground in slight confusion, wondering why he would do something like break into an association’s base.

“So you can see I have a valid reasoning for being here, so just let me have this guy and I’ll be on my way.” The Dawn tried to bargain.

Dark snapped his head back to face the Dawn and narrowed his gaze.

“No.” He responded.

“Wh-why?!” The Dawn asked.

Dark was going to kill him, the fact that he’s here for his association made no difference to Dark; he wasn’t going to let anyone kill Anti. He did, however, want to see how the Dawn would try to escape his death.

“You broke into my house and wrecked my stuff.” Dark growled, imitating the Dawn’s earlier argument.

“Y-your stuff?” The Dawn looked back over at Anti in confusion.

Dark brought the Dawn right up to his face to ensure that he would get the message.

“He is with me. You hurt him, so now you have to deal with me.” He said lowly.

Before the Dawn could process what Dark said, he was thrown back onto the ground as a shadow covered his mouth, his screams muffled to silence. More shadows crept up from the ground and slowly engulfed the Dawn’s entire body until he was dragged down into the darkness and disappeared.

“You’re lucky I didn’t have enough time to make you suffer more.” Dark grumbled under his breath before turning quickly to Anti’s unmoving body on the ground.

Dark gently lifted Anti off the floor and onto the couch once more, turning him so his back was on the cushions.

_Is he dead?!_ Mark feared.

_Quiet, I need to concentrate._

Anti groaned as Dark carefully squeezed his arm to get his attention.

“Anti, I need to know what type of Dusk you are.”

_Anti?_

Dark ignored Mark, waiting for Anti to respond, who only softly grunted.

“Anti, this is serious, I need to know what type of Dusk you are.”

Anti slowly opened his eyes and tried to focus on Dark, everything around him looking hazy, but he could see the concern in Dark’s eyes.

“I don… don’t understan…” he breathed out.

“I’m specialize in dark energy and shadow manipulation, so I’m generally referred to as a ‘Shadow Dusk’. I can give you some of my energy, but I need to make sure that it’s compatible with you and won’t hurt you, so I need to know what type of Dusk you are.”

Anti’s lack of a presence was starting to worry Dark; he could hardly feel his aura, and that would only happen if his energy levels were dangerously low, which is extremely bad for any spirit.

“I don’t…”

“Anti, I just told you what I’m trying to do-“

“No, I don’t know… what type I am…”

“How do you… never mind, can you tell me what you specialize in or something that you’re good at so I can at least get an idea?”

Anti turned his face so he was no longer looking at Dark.

“I…” he couldn’t get himself to say anything else, and he felt awful to.

“Anti?” Dark grabbed Anti’s hand that was closest to the edge with both of his, holding it up tightly. Anti’s presence was fading fast.

“Anti… isn’t there something…?”

Anti shook his head, looking frustrated. He didn’t want to do this, but Dark was going to have to try to give Anti his energy anyway, and hopefully it wouldn’t hurt him.

“Okay, Anti, I need you to focus. I’m going to give you a small amount of my energy and you’re going to have to tell me right away if it’s hurting you.”

He waited until Anti gave a small nod before concentrating on directing a small part of his energy to his hands, carefully transferring it to Anti through his grip on Anti’s hand. He watched Anti’s face closely, looking for any signs of discomfort or pain. After a few moments, Dark noticed his face relax just a bit. Dark got a bit more confident, transferring more energy at a time, but still kept his eyes trained on Anti. A few minutes passed and Anti let out a sigh.

“It doesn’t hurt?” Dark wanted to confirm.

Anti shook his head “no” and Dark noted that his aura had returned slightly.

“Okay, okay, you’re going to be okay then.” Dark replied before letting go of Anti’s hand to move one of his hands onto Anti’s chest.

“It would be easier to transfer my energy directly to the center of yours.” Dark explained when Anti gave him a confused look.

Then, Dark focused once more on directing his energy towards his hand on Anti’s chest. However, this time he didn’t restrict it as much as he felt his energy flow through him and into Anti. He watched as Anti’s breathing got better and the visible cuts on his body started healing themselves. His eyes closed as he visibly relaxed, but Anti was still exhausted, and even though he was getting energy back, he still needs time to recover. He drifted off, getting much needed sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the heck did it mean when the Dawn said Anti broke into their association? Don't worry, all will be explained next chapter.
> 
> PLUS FLUFF, THE LONG AWAITED HUGGLES WILL BE EVERYWHERE NEXT CHAPTER, WOO!
> 
> This is my last pre-written chapter so you'll need to give me some time to think about the content and actually write out the next chapters.
> 
> Next chapter will be up tomorrow because I'm excited for the huggles though.
> 
> As I always say, comment about anything, suggestions are always welcome, tell me what you think of the story so far, and I hope you're enjoying the story! ^^


	7. Much Needed Hug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain someone gets a much needed hug by another certain someone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huggles, actually, it's more like one really really really long lasting hug and it's adorable and I love it.

Mark woke up to the slamming of a door, blinking his eyes open as he sat up in the… living room? He was sitting on the floor and realized he had fallen asleep with his head in his arms leaning against the couch because he was worried about Jack and didn’t want to leave his side. That’s right, Jack!

He looked around for Jack, noticing that he was sitting up on the other side of the couch covering his face with his hands. Mark hastily stood up from the ground and sat next to Jack.

“Hey, Jack, are you okay?” Mark asked hesitantly, seeing that Jack wasn’t looking too happy.

“No…” Jack mumbled.

He let out a heavy sigh before moving his hands away and sit up straight, looking over at Mark. He looked tired and upset.

“It’s… it’s Anti, he’s being so… ugh, I don’t know.” He sighed.

“Anti is… your Dusk?” 

“Yeah, he just stormed off to our room.”

The two of them felt the air around them shift for a second as Dark appeared besides Mark, standing up.

“I’ll talk to him.” He said calmly.

“He was pretty upset this morning… you can try, I guess.” Jack responded.

Dark nodded before making his way over to the stairs and walking up to the second story, knocking lightly on the door to Jack and Anti’s room.

“Go away, Jack.” Anti called from the other side.

“It’s not Jack.”

“Ugh, even better.” He heard Anti groan.

Dark quietly opened the door, seeing Anti sitting on the ground leaning against the bed, knees tucked in with his head leaning against them.

“Can’t you see I don’t want to talk?” Anti grumbled.

“But you should.”

“About what, huh?!” Anti was getting mad and lifted his head to glare at Dark. “About how you had to save my sorry ass twice now?! About how I failed at protect Jack _twice_ and almost died?! About how you think I’m just some useless pain in the ass you have to put up with for Mark’s sake?!”

Dark finally connected the dots, understanding why Anti was so upset.

“Well, I don’t need your help, I never asked for your help, I can take care of myself!”

“Anti, that’s not-“

“No, I don’t need you!”

“Anti-“

“I’m fine by myself!”

Anti clutched his legs lowering his head again and continued arguing with Dark. Dark walked over to him, kneeling down so he was eye-level and spoke more firmly.

“Anti, you need to calm down.” He gently placed his hands on either side of Anti’s face, lightly cupping his cheeks.

“I don’t need you. I don’t need you.” He was shaking now.

“Anti!”

“I don’t need you.”

“Anti, listen to me!”

“I can take care of myself, I don’t need you!”

“Anti, you have to stop comparing yourself to me!”

Anti stopped rambling, eyes snapping up to look at Dark. Dark sighed lightly, then continued speaking, voice soft.

“You’re not me, and you’re never going to _be_ me, but that’s okay, you’re not supposed to be anyone else other than you.”

Anti looked at Dark in shock, then slowly felt his eyes getting blurry.

“Anti, you have to understand that I’ve been doing this for _fourteen_ years, you can’t try to match up with me.” He gently rubbed his thumbs on Anti’s cheeks, carefully wiping away blackish clear tears from his face.

“And you don’t even know what type of Dusk you are, Anti, of course it’s going to be rough for you right now. When you were fighting those other spirits, it’s like you were in a competition where they had trained for years in preparation for it and you don’t even know what the competition _is.”_

Anti started sniffling, more tears falling as Dark was reassuring him about what he’s been scared about. Dark leaned forward, resting his forehead on Anti’s and closed his eyes.

“Anti, you are strong, you are courageous, you are smart, and even though you try to hide it, I can tell you are kind-hearted.”

Dark leaned back a bit so he could see Anti’s face, wiping away more tears that had fallen.

“I’m here for you, so let me help you…” Dark finished.

Anti looked at Dark with a tear-stained face, then lowered his head as he reached up to grab Dark’s hands and bring them away from his face. Dark frowned, Anti was still pushing him away... 

He was about to get up to move when Anti fell forward, wrapping his arms around Dark’s chest. Dark was taken by surprise, but smiled softly while wrapping his arms back around Anti as he snuggled into Dark’s chest. Dark held Anti as he silently wept in his arms, gently rubbing Anti’s back in comfort while the other hand was caressing his hair. After a few minutes, Anti’s crying had reduced to sniffles and Dark carefully moved them so he was now the one leaning back against the bed with Anti curled in his lap. The lights were still off, so Dark was able to create a shadow and draped it over the two of them, acting as a warm and safe blanket. He let Anti nuzzle into his chest as he continued rubbing soothing circles on his back. When he felt Anti’s breathing steady, he leaned down to place a soft kiss on Anti’s head.

They stayed like that for a while; Anti had fallen asleep and Dark spent the time relaxing with Anti in his arms, watching his chest rise and fall with each breath. He hadn’t known Anti for long, but he was beginning to grow fond of him. He never said anything, but he thought it was nice when the two of them were out on the roofs of L.A. when they were looking for the Dusk. It was calming.

He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but eventually Jack opened the door to the room, seeing the two of them. Jack looked surprised, looking between the two of them and wondering how Dark got Anti to go to sleep like that.

Dark moved the shadows around them so he could lift up Anti, keeping an arm under his legs and one around his back, then stood up himself. He followed Jack out of the bedroom and back to the living room where Mark was still sitting. Mark turned his head to watch the three of them, looking equally as surprised as Jack was. Jack sat down next to Mark as Dark went over to the other couch, being careful not to do anything to wake Anti.

“So…” Jack whispered, “he’s okay now?”

“Yes, a lot happened and he had a lot on his mind, but he should be fine now.” Dark responded quietly.

A few minutes of silence.

“Do you know about Anti breaking into an association’s base?” Dark asked Jack, still wondering about it from earlier.

“An association’s base? I don’t remember anything like that…”

“That’s why the Dawn said he was after Anti, right?” Mark asked.

“What’s an association? Is that a spirit thing?" Jack added.

“Some spirits like to form groups, kind of like guilds or teams or something similar, and they usually have some place as a headquarters to meet at; some even live there. Most of the time, spirits join associations to either have some type of back up or to be feared; belonging to a powerful association makes it less likely for others to interfere with you.” Dark replied. “It seems as though Anti crossed paths with some group and they saw him as an unwelcome guest. Some associations are like that.”

“Are you part of one?” Jack asked, glancing between Mark and Dark.

“No, I don’t usually like how associations function, and I prefer to work alone.”

Dark looked down at Anti, still sleeping soundly.

“With one exception.” He added.

Jack seemed to smile at that. The three of them stayed quiet throughout the day, keeping the television volume low and making meals that didn’t require a lot of work or noise. After lunch, Mark finally asked Jack how he first met Anti.

“I was back at the apartment.” Jack started, “just got home from a restaurant, had a few drinks at the bar there. I remember noticing that the bartender kept giving me strange looks; it got weird enough that I stopped ordering anything else and eventually left. However, I guess I didn’t notice them quickly enough because they put some type of poison in the drinks I had. When I got home, I couldn’t stop shaking and sweating; I puked a few times as well. I was about to call the hospital until Anti showed up. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I know he got rid of the poison and made me go to sleep. A few days later the bartender got arrested and went to jail ‘cause he poisoned some other people as well and got caught.”

“Ah, so what was it like living with Anti at first?”

“Honestly, the best way I could describe it was like having a giant rebellious cat.”

Mark had to cover his mouth to hold back his laughter at Jack’s statement.

“He can teleport and prefers floating around rather than walking when he’s in his own form, so he was always getting into something at the apartment and, yes, he did accidentally knock things over. At least he always said he did it on accident. Like all cats, he eventually wanted to go outside, so once in a while we’d switch places and he’d go outside, but he never really did anything, he just went snooping around… ooooh.”

“What?”

“That’s probably what happened with the association.”

Dark had his eyes closed while he was still in the living room with Anti, but he opened one eye and looked at Jack after he said that.

“I was asleep when he was doing this but after he got home that day he was telling me about this one building he found with a bunch of ‘weirdos that looked like they were starting some anime-inspired cult’ and he went snooping around in there to accidentally knock over a shelf of their stuff or something. He said they were mad but he teleported out of there before they could do anything; I think he might have stolen something to. I’m still working on improving his behavior so he doesn’t do illegal things again like stealing.”

“And they’re still mad after all this time?” Mark questioned.

“Some people just hold grudges.” Dark responded. “And associations like to ‘preserve their honor’ or however they want to describe it; they want to prove to others why they shouldn’t interfere with them.”

“And now you… the Dawn…” Mark didn’t want to finish that sentence.

“You don’t need to be concerned about that, nothing will trace it back to me, but they’ll probably still be going after Anti.”

“Will we never get a break?” Jack sighed.

“You don’t have to worry.” Dark hummed. “As long as you don’t go out alone anymore.”

Dark closed his eye once more, moving Anti so he could lean back on the couch more comfortably while shifting his legs up on the couch, resting Anti back down onto his chest.

Mark leaned over to whisper to Jack, both of them looking at the two Dusks.

“Is this as weird for you as it is for me?”

Jack nodded.

…

It was getting late, the sun had already set and Mark and Jack were preparing for bed. They were cleaning up the dishes from dinner and looked over at Anti and Dark who haven’t moved from their position on the couch. Anti was still asleep and Dark had his eyes closed, though neither of them could tell whether he was asleep or just resting.

“He’s been sleeping all day, is that normal?” Mark asked Jack as he was putting away a plate.

“Anti is usually pretty energetic, it’s weird for me to see him sleeping… like at all.”

“Can spirits get sick?”

“We don’t have to sleep if we have our energy, but we can if we choose to. It’s like meditation for us; Anti is just choosing to take it easy right now.” Dark mumbled, eyes staying closed.

Looks like Dark wasn’t asleep.

Mark and Jack finished up in the kitchen and turned off the light, walking over to the living room as Mark rested his arms on the back of the other couch.

“Are you going to be fine out here?” Mark asked.

“Yes, and I’m still keeping the house safe; you two can go to sleep.”

Mark turned around to face Jack, shrugging and going over to the stairs. Jack looked over at Dark and Anti, noting how Anti was practically laying on top of Dark as he nuzzled into him.

“Yep, he’s a cat alright.” Jack muttered before turning around and joining Mark on the stairs, each going to their rooms for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just thought it'd be nice to explain a little bit about Anti here so...
> 
> Anti is a protective little biscuit who wants to keep Jack safe, but since he's new he hasn't had the experience yet and Dark had to save him twice so he feels inferior to Dark. He wants to be able to keep up with Dark and prove he's strong too, which is why he was projecting his anger onto Dark because he's mad that he's not as strong as Dark is yet.
> 
> But Dark figured it out and gave him the best snuggles and is gonna help him get stronger, so our angry biscuit is no longer angry!
> 
> Thanks for reading, the next chapters are probably going to take a bit longer since I no longer have any more ideas but I'll get them posted as soon as I can! Feel free to comment suggestions or ideas and any other stuff you want to comment! The few comments I have right now made me so flipping happy, I can't describe how fun this is for me ^^


	8. Cuddle Sessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now the other certain someone gets a much needed hug by the other other certain someone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The awesome comments asked for some Mark and Jack cuddles, so here they are! ^^
> 
> That's pretty much how the next chapters are going to be written, someone just has to give me a prompt or ask something because my mind hasn't come up with any ideas yet.
> 
> Except for next chapter, that one is going to be the same day as this chapter but in Dark/Anti's POV.

Jack woke up to an eerily quiet room, checking the time to see it was almost two in the morning. He stared at the ceiling, trying to calm down after waking up from an unpleasant dream. His mind decided to replay everything that happened last night while he was sleeping and it was uncomfortable. He lifted the blankets off of him just to make sure that he wasn’t bleeding from being attacked by that Dawn; he knew the Dawn was gone but… the dream messed with his mind. It wasn’t a bad nightmare, and it definitely wasn’t like any of the ones that the nightmare Dusk was causing, it was just a bad memory resurfacing in his dreams.

It was probably normal for this to happen to people, right? He just suffered a traumatizing event and almost died; he’s probably not going to just be able to live like that never happened the next day.

_Anti?_ Jack asked.

After there was no reply, Jack remembered that Anti was downstairs sleeping on top of Dark; he’s not in the mindscape.

Oh, Jack was pretty much alone here.

His mind started thinking about everything wrong that could happen, because of course it did, and he started to get a little nervous. He glanced over at the window, his mind imagining the Dawn finding a way to open the window and coming after Jack without Anti. He tried to reason that the same Dawn wouldn’t be back, he couldn’t be back, but then Jack’s mind started thinking about the association coming here to get revenge.

_They don’t even know where we live._ Jack tried to reason with himself.

But it was too late, his mind was already thinking about the association breaking in and it only got worse from there. He thought he heard a shuffling sound outside and that’s when he finally got out of bed.

He quietly opened the door to his room, peeking out and seeing everything too dark to really tell apart. He lightly stepped down the stairs, looking over at the living room to see Dark and Anti still laying on the couch, though Anti seemed to have stretched out in the middle of the night and was laying with one leg over Dark’s while still clinging to his chest. It was nice to see that Anti was finally getting along with Dark.

He carefully went back upstairs and walked over to Mark’s room, opening the door to see him fast asleep under the covers with Chica in her little dog bed nearby. Jack leaned against the door as he knocked on it softly, wanting to get Mark’s attention but at the same time not wanting to be loud about it.

“Mark?” he whispered softly.

Chica was woken up by that, lifting her head up and tail wagging lightly, though she stayed in her bed.

“Mark?” Jack tried again, a little louder this time.

“Mmm…” Mark hummed.

“Hey, Mark…”

“Jack…?” he mumbled sleepily, turning to his side and looked over at Jack as he approached the bed.

“Somethin’ th’ matter…?” he added.

“Would you mind if I… stayed in here? For the night?” Jack asked hesitantly.

Mark moved over on the bed and lifted the blankets up, signaling to Jack that it was okay as Jack carefully climbed into bed and got underneath the covers as well. Before he could do much else, Mark ended up pulling him over onto his chest, wrapping an arm around him. Jack tilted his head up to see Mark’s eyes were closed and it was easy to tell he was still half sleeping.

“Bad dreams?” Mark asked quietly.

“Something like that… it’s just weird being alone…” Jack mumbled back.

“ ’ur never alone.” He felt Mark pull him closer in reassurance.

Jack smiled and slowly wrapped an arm around Mark as well, turning his head so he could listen to Mark’s heartbeat. Jack could hear the beat slow down as Mark fell back asleep, being comforted by the gentle rhythm. He felt himself drifting off to sleep as well, and whenever his mind tried to remind him about the Dawn, the heartbeat reminded him that he wasn’t alone.

He was going to be okay.

…

Jack woke up to something brushing through his hair and he grumbled as he tried to snuggle closer to the warm pillow he was cuddling with. He heard someone chuckling softly, and it sounded close.

“Jack, we have to get up.”

“Hnnn.”

“We have to get up because, there’s like… a world of pancakes in the kitchen. And bacon. I’m pretty sure we have bacon in the fridge.”

Jack reluctantly opened his eyes to see he was cuddling Mark, not a pillow. He scooted back and looked at Mark in confusion before remembering what happened last night.

“Uh… sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“Aw, c’mere.” Mark smiled as he pulled Jack into his arms again. “Cuddle sessions are always welcome.”

Jack was quiet for a moment, having trouble believing it at first, but then snuggled closer into Mark’s embrace. He felt Mark rest his head on top of him; it was nice.

“But seriously,” Mark mumbled into Jack’s hair, “food is a thing we have to get.”

“Food can wait.” Jack responded.

“Are you seriously saying no to food?” Mark started swaying Jack back and forth in his arms.

Jack couldn’t hold back a few giggles as Mark did that, and Mark started laughing along with him. How did Mark make him feel so… comfortable… relaxed… safe.

Then Chica jumped up on the bed and almost squashed them.

“Alright, we’re getting up now.” Mark chuckled as he sat up and got out of bed, getting Chica off the bed as well.

The two of them took turns using the restroom for their morning routines before both going downstairs with Chica. They found that Dark and Anti were both awake, Dark being in the kitchen and Anti was hovering cross-legged over the table.

“Did you make breakfast?” Mark asked, seeing Dark cooking something on the stove along with cut strawberries on a plate to the side.

“Yes, it’s almost done.” Dark responded.

Mark and Jack both went outside to the backyard to let Chica out while they waited for Dark to finish breakfast. After Chica had finished her business and chased a wandering squirrel across the yard, they went back inside to see two plates of elegant chocolate crepes decorated with strawberries and a chocolate drizzle on them.

“You made this?!” Jack asked in awe.

“Yes.” Dark responded simply.

The two men sat down at the table with a plate in front of them, Jack looking more surprised than Mark.

“This looks so… I don’t know, fancy?” Jack said to Mark.

“Yeah, I’ve gotten a little more used to it because Dark’s done this a few times in the past. Usually when he makes something, it’s not a meal you’d find on a microwavable box.” He grabbed his fork and cut a piece of the crepe, taking a bite before continuing, “I am, however, surprised to see that he made breakfast in the first place.”

The two of them looked over at Dark who was back cleaning up in the kitchen while Anti was sitting on the top of the fridge.

“He’s probably in a good mood today.” Mark added.

Jack took a bite of the crepe and looked back at Mark in disbelief.

“This is fantastic.” Jack smiled.

After Dark finished cleaning up in the kitchen, he announced that he and Anti were going up to Jack’s room while they were going to try and figure out what type of Dusk Anti is.

Mark and Jack finished up their wonderful breakfast and cleaned up the plates, then sat on the couch of the living room and talked a bit while the t.v. acted as background noise.

The two of them were having a relaxing morning until there was a loud bang seeming to come from the front yard.

Jack flinched and tensed up.

“Oh… Jack, you good?” Mark asked once he noticed Jack looking uncomfortable.

He stood up and moved a curtain from the window to look outside, seeing nothing of interest before sitting back down next to Jack.

“Yeah… I’m… I’m fine.” Jack responded, not making eye contact with Mark.

“Jack, you can talk to me about anything, I’m not going to judge you.” Mark reassured.

“No, no, it’s nothing like that…” Jack let out a sigh. “I’m just still spooked about that Dawn, it’s stupid, I know he’s not he’s not gonna be back I’m just-“

“That’s not stupid, Jack, after going through that, you have a totally valid reason to be spooked.” Mark cut him off

“But I don’t want to be jumpin’ at every little sound either.” Jack responded.

“Hold on, I got an idea.” Mark got up from the couch and went upstairs, coming back a minute later with a giant blanket. He then went into the kitchen and grabbed something from the freezer along with some silverware before walking back over to the couch.

“Get up for a second.” Mark hummed.

Jack got up to see Mark put down the giant blanket on the couch and set a container of ice cream and two spoons on the table in front of the couch.

“Sit.” Mark added after sitting on the couch.

Jack sat down next to him and Mark wrapped an arm around his shoulders before taking the blanket and wrapping it around the two of them.

“What are you doing?” Jack chuckled.

“Cuddle session.” Mark smiled. “But with ice cream and an awesome movie.”

Mark stuck an arm out from under the blanket to grab the remote, checking to see what movies were on.

“Ooo, there’s Mulan.”

“Are we going to channel our inner princess warriors.” Jack giggled.

“But of course! What other princess will we be?”

“Is Mulan even a real princess?”

“If Disney says she’s a princess, then she’s a princess.”

They switched the t.v. to Mulan as Jack rested his head on Mark’s shoulder, relaxing under the covers. Mark’s hand that was around Jack was gently rubbing his arm in comfort, making Jack smile at the gesture. After a few minutes, Mark rested his head atop of Jacks.

“You are safe here.” Mark said softly.

Jack believed him.

They spent the rest of the day relaxing, not thinking about anything spirit related and acted as though everything was normal. They finished the whole container of ice cream before the movie ended, but they stayed curled up under the covers after the credits rolled by.

They were going to have a lot of work to do later since they were laying around being lazy now, but it was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've spent like the past week writing this story and I haven't taken a break and I need a break but I want to keep writing this story.  
> What is my life.
> 
> Your comments give me strength and I've seen the few kudos I've gotten so far and it's so awesome, you guys really make my day with this! I've woken up these last two days looking forward to the new comments and kudos I've gotten and it's amazing!
> 
> As always, don't be afraid to comment about anything, I'd love to hear what you have to say and any suggestions or ideas you have! ^^


	9. Glitching the System

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anti finds out what type of Dusk he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place during the same day the last chapter was, it's just in Anti's and Dark's POV now.

Anti woke up, though he kept his eyes closed, and took a moment to figure out where he was. Whatever he was laying on kept slowly moving up and down, as though it were breathing…

Anti opened his eyes to see he was laying on a white dress shirt. He moved his head a bit to look up, seeing Dark’s face, eyes closed. He slowly lifted himself off of Dark, hovering above the ground off to the side of the couch but still staying horizontal.

He had fallen asleep on Dark, and sometime when he was asleep Dark had taken off his tie and jacket as well as his shoes. Anti stayed in the air, taking the time to really look at Dark’s features. His hair was slightly parted to the side where it rested over one of his eyes; the rest of the face that was visible looked peaceful. His appearance reminded him of Mark, of course, but Dark’s energy was becoming familiar to Anti, and he could tell that this was indeed Dark.

Anti could hear birds chirping outside and looked around to try to figure out what time it was. Most of the curtains were closed so he couldn’t really tell if there was sunlight or not, but he floated over to the coffee table and looked at the cable box under the t.v. to see it was 7:12.

When he looked back over at Dark, he found that Dark’s eyes were now open and he propped himself up against the arm of the chair that he was using as a pillow earlier.

“Good morning.” He greeted to Anti, stretching a bit before moving his legs to the side, off of the couch.

“Mornin’.” He said quietly, unused to the situation.

“I take it you slept well?”

“Yeah…” Anti replied, fiddling with one of the sleeves of his shirt.

“Well, I’m sure Mark and Jack will be waking up soon; how about we make breakfast?” Dark suggested as he stood up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen, somehow putting on his jacket and tie without Anti noticing.

“Ugh, I don’t know how to make food.” Anti replied as he floated over to the dining table, sitting cross-legged in the air.

Dark started looking around in the kitchen, grabbing a few things from the fridge and a bowl.

“What does Jack like to eat?”

“Cake.”

Dark turned to look at Anti, raising an eyebrow.

“I already have to hassle with Mark about eating healthy, do I have to do it to you too?”

“We don’t have to eat anyway.” Anti pouted.

“No, but if you’re in control of Jack’s body you’ll have to.”

“I don’t know, he like’s sweets I guess.”

Dark looked back in the fridge again, pulling out a bag of chocolate chips.

“I suppose I could make something with this.” He then grabbed a container of strawberries. “But we’re going to be adding these to it.”

Dark melted the chocolate while he was mixing ingredients in a bowl, Anti watching curiously. Once the chocolate was made into a liquid, Dark added it to the bowl along with the other ingredients before pouring half of it into a pan on the stove. While that was cooking, Dark looked through the drawers, frowning when he didn’t find what he was looking for.

“Pass me a knife?” He asked.

Anti summoned a knife in his hand before throwing it at Dark, who caught it effortlessly before using it to cut off the tops of the strawberries as well as cutting them in half. He flipped the chocolatey batter in the pan and let the other side cook before taking it out of the pan to pour the rest of the batter in. While he was in the middle of cooking the other crepe, Mark and Jack walked down the stairs with Chica following.

“Did you make breakfast?” Mark asked.

“Yes, it’s almost done.” Dark responded.

Mark and Jack went outside with Chica while Dark finished cooking the last crepe, making two plates and making each crepe with a chocolate and strawberry filling before wrapping them neatly and using the leftover chocolate and strawberries to decorate the tops. He placed the two plates on the table as Jack and Mark walked back inside before returning to the kitchen to clean up, noticing Anti had moved to sit on top of the fridge.

“You made this?!” He heard Jack ask.

“Yes.”

While Mark and Jack talked with each other, Dark finished up cleaning the kitchen, putting away the ingredients he didn’t use and cleaned the bowl and pan in the sink.

“Anti and I are going to be in Jack’s room for a while; I’m going to see if I can figure out what type of Dusk Anti is.” Dark announced before walking over to the stairs.

Anti was confused for a second before leaving his spot on the fridge and glided over to the stairs, following Dark up to Jack’s room. The two of them stood in the room in silence for a moment before Anti decided to sit on the floor and ask about it.

“So, how are we supposed to find out what type of Dusk I am?”

Dark looked down at Anti sitting on the floor, sighing before sitting down in front of him.

“Certain Dusks can do certain things; we just have to find out what you can do.”

“I haven’t exactly had a lot of practice… doing much.”

“Yes, I know, but we should be able to narrow it down based on what you already know.”

“Okay, so, what _do_ we know?”

“You can levitate and teleport; those are two distinctive abilities, so I’ve already ruled out a lot of options. However, I think we might get some more clues by analyzing how you were first awoken.”

“Oh, that was about… two months ago I think.”

“Sometimes the way a spirit is awoken relates to what type of spirit they are or shows some type of skill they have.”

“Oh, I don’t remember the details. Jack was poisoned, got really sick, woke me up, I got rid of the poison and made him go to sleep to recover.”

“How did you get rid of the poison?”

“I’m not sure, I just could tell there was something wrong with his body so I made it go away.”

“Made it just… go away?”

“Ugh, I really don’t remember the specifics.” Anti rubbed his forehead, trying to recall what happened. “Uh, it was kinda like how I teleport, except instead of teleporting myself, I made the poison disappear instead.”

Dark hummed in acknowledgment, taking a few minutes to think everything through.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone else doing that before.”

“Guess it doesn’t help then.”

“No, not necessarily, it changes how we can see your teleporting ability. We now know that it isn’t just basic teleportation you can do; with practice you may be able to expand your ability as well.”

The two talked for a while, Dark asking questions about Anti’s other skills, his past encounters with other spirits, and even his likes and dislikes.

“What does finding out what I like have to do with what type of Dusk I am?”

“Some Dusks have common preferences when they’re the same type. Sometimes it just matches with what type you are. For example, you may have noticed all the windows have curtains blocking out the light; one of the reasons for that is because I don’t like the light.”

“You don’t like light?” Anti snickered.

“I’m a Shadow Dusk, I don’t work well in the light.” Dark rolled his eyes.

“I’ve never had a problem with it.”

“Well, you’re obviously not a Shadow Dusk.”

They talked a bit more until Dark noticed the scar on Anti’s neck again, seeing how it looked fresh, but it never looked like it was actually hurting him.

“How did you get that?” Dark finally asked.

“What…?” He touched his neck, not being able to actually see it himself. “This?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve always had it.”

“Your form was created with it?”

“Yeah… I don’t know where I got it from but I always thought it was… fitting I guess.”

Dark’s eyes widened a bit as an idea came to mind.

“It scares people sometimes, it’s actually kind of funny. Normally people freak out when they have a cut on their throat but then I’m just walking around like it’s no big deal. This type of stuff can’t kill me.” Anti grinned. 

“You cheat death…” Dark mumbled.

“What?”

“That scar… symbolizes cheating death.”

“Cheating death? But what about the time when I almost died?”

“You’re not invincible, and I’m sure you weren’t trying to do that at the time either anyway.”

“Is this one of those ‘you have to believe you can do it’ scenarios?”

“You did it before, though. When you were awoken, you got rid of the poison that would’ve killed Jack. Normally, you would’ve had to get an antidote or used some type of healing ability, but you didn’t have to do any of that; you went around the normal order of the world.”

Anti looked at Dark in surprise.

“Anti, you’re a Glitch. You can glitch through the system of this world.”

“So… I’m…” Anti started smiling.

“You’re a Glitch Dusk. I hadn’t thought about it before because it’s so rare to find one, but Anti… you’re one of the strongest spirits out there… if not _the_ strongest type.”

Dark grabbed both of Anti’s hands and held them between the two of them.

“Are you serious?” Anti smiled, having a hard time believing he was one of the strongest types of spirits that there was.

“Very serious. Unfortunately, because your type is rare, I don’t know too much about it, but you’ll become an impressive Dusk soon enough. You’ll most likely become even stronger than me as well.”

Anti had a huge grin on his face; he might become even stronger than Dark. Wouldn’t that be interesting to see. That’s when he noticed Dark’s energy as they had their hands together. His grin lowered and turned to curiosity as he looked at their hands, then looked up at Dark’s eyes to see something like warmth.

Dark leaned forward, resting their foreheads together as they both closed their eyes.

“Did you notice?” Dark hummed.

Anti could tell there was something about Dark’s energy, and his own to. He remembered he could tell the two apart easily, and Dark’s energy was seen as a separate entity all together. When they went out at night while they were looking for the nightmare Dusk, there was a distinct difference between the two, even when Dark had taken him into the shadows to travel and was right next to him.

But now it felt like their two different energies were mixing together at their hands, and Dark’s energy was becoming more familiar… it didn’t feel out of place… it didn’t feel like there were two different people here.

“Why does it feel different?” Anti finally asked, keeping his voice low in this strangely intimate position.

“We’re starting to have a connection.”

Anti remembered him saying something about a connection in the mindscape and how it was something like a bond.

“How do we have a connection…? And what’s it…do?”

“Spirits can form a connection with one another if they become close, physically or mentally. You had fallen asleep on me and stayed there for almost 24 hours, so we were close for a long time. However, one of the most vulnerable states a person can be in is when they are asleep, and you trusted me to keep you safe while you were sleeping.”

Anti tried not to feel embarrassed about the fact that he basically used Dark as a pillow the whole day.

“Mark and Jack have gotten closer as well, even though it doesn’t have as much as an impact on a spirit’s connection.”

Dark remembered noticing how Jack had gotten up in the middle of the night and moved to Mark’s room. Dark generally doesn’t sleep, though he spent the night peacefully relaxing with Anti, but he had this normal field of energy around the house and could tell that Jack’s energy signature had moved.

“So what’s a connection do?” Anti asked once more.

“If two spirits have a connection, then their energy can work together, acting as one. They can use their abilities together with one another. If two spirits with compatible abilities have a connection, they can become especially powerful and dangerous.”

Anti leaned back to look at Dark, both opening their eyes to see one another.

“Do we…?”

“I’m a powerful Shadow Dusk with significant shadow abilities and strengths, but I am limited to stay in the shadows themselves. My abilities don’t work if I’m in the light and there are no shadows in the first place. However, since you are a Glitch Dusk, if we have a strong enough connection, you could essentially surpass those restrictions I have and allow me to work beyond them. Anti, I can’t express how powerful your ability _is._ Our world is governed by rules and the natural laws, but you have the ability to ignore them and act on your own.”

“But I don’t know how to do that.”

“You don’t know how to do that _yet._ ” Dark corrected. “Which is why we’re going to have you train. You just need practice.”

“I just need… practice.”

Dark moved back to stand up, bringing Anti to his feet as well. 

“Yes, and I’m going to teach you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm going to take a break for real now. I have finals and stuff coming up.
> 
> I love your comments, they make me so happy, it's awesome, and I love all of you, you guys are all beautiful people.  
> Feel free to comment about anything, I'm friendly! Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. ^^


	10. Fancy Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A relaxing dinner to have a nice evening rather than think about the trouble the other spirits are causing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of you guys are pretty happy that Anti is going to be a tough guy, and I'm planning on making him badass and all, but you guys also have to remember that Anti still has a lot to learn, so he has to work his way up to being strong, he can't just magically become the strongest spirit just because he found out what type of Dusk he is XD
> 
> I love your comments though, it also gives me an idea on where the story should go and what parts of the story you guys are liking.

“Why don’t we go get a nice dinner tonight?” Mark asked after the two of them worked together editing videos in Mark’s recording room.

“Like at a restaurant?” Jack questioned.

“Yeah, we can go to a nice restaurant, order some fancy steaks, pretend to be VIPs.”

“Does that mean we get buff bodyguards with dark sunglasses?”

“I’ll be your bodyguard.” Mark smirked.

“Well, then I’ll die.” Jack responded.

“What! I’d be an awesome bodyguard!”

“That would do something stupid which would end with me dying.”

“No faith.” Mark sighed, though he was still smiling.

There was a crashing sound in the background.

“So why do you want to go out to dinner?” Jack asked.

They heard Anti shout.

“I thought it’d be nice. With all of the drama that’s been going on lately, we could go out to dinner like normal people and have a normal evening.”

More yelling.

“But we still have to worry about that one association that’s after Anti and those Dusks that are still breaking stuff. The news said they broke into another building yesterday.”

The sound of something falling over.

“Which is why we need a relaxing evening out of the house; we need to make sure we don’t subconsciously become scared of going outside from having too many bad events in a row. We shouldn’t have to worry about being attacked whenever we go outside.”

Anti yelled again.

“You know, Anti’s been doing that a lot.” Mark commented.

“Yeah, but it sounds more like mad-at-a-videogame yelling, not actually-mad yelling.” Jack added.

There was a thud against a wall.

“Whatever’s going on…” Mark started.

“If it was serious, they would’ve told us by now.” They said in unison.

Mark and Jack were both sitting in the living room when Anti and Dark finally came downstairs. Anti seemed frustrated, though Dark had his usual composed look.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more annoyed in my life.” Anti said blandly.

“You need to learn how to control your energy if you want to learn how to properly use your power.”

“Wait, did you guys figure out what type of Dusk Anti is?” Jack asked.

“Yes, Anti is a Glitch Dusk, but he apparently has a long way to go until he has a full command of his abilities.”

“Your training sucks.”

“It’s hasn’t even been one day yet.” Dark sighed.

“Can I ask what was going on up there? We heard a lot of shouting.” Mark asked.

“The first step to fully controlling your abilities is to first strengthen and perfect the ones you are familiar with. We were working on Anti’s teleportation ability; there are now a lot of knives in the walls.”

Anti threw a knife at Dark’s face.

“I’m guessing it didn’t go as planned?”

“No, it went how I thought it would, I had guessed that he wouldn’t get it on the first day.” Dark said as he caught the knife with ease.

“Well, why don’t we go have a nice evening at a fancy restaurant tonight?”

“You do remember there is an association and a gang of Dusks in the area, right?” Dark quirked an eyebrow.

“Yes, why do you all go straight to that? C’mon, Jack and I will be together and Anti can teleport and you can do that shadow travel thing if we need a getaway plan. _If_ we need it.” Mark replied.

“I’m not worried about them, I’m just stating the facts.” Dark hummed before leaving the room.

“I’m tired, I’m gonna go take a break.” Anti huffed and disappeared somewhere.

Mark and Jack were left alone in the room again.

“Huh…” Mark looked over at Jack who just shrugged.

They both started laughing a bit after.

…

The sun was beginning to set, though it was still a comfortable light outside. Mark and Jack were by the front door putting on their shoes and getting ready to go to dinner. They called for Anti and Dark, who were somewhere in the house, but they didn’t respond.

“We can’t leave without them.” Jack frowned.

“More like they can’t stay without us.” Mark hummed.

“What do you mean?”

“If we get too far away from our spirits, they get transported back to the mindscape, against their will I might add. It’s impossible for them to get separated from us.”

“So if we just left right now…”

“They’d end up back in the mindscapes on our way to the restaurant.”

“Are you sure we should just leave, though?”

They waited for a few moments… still no sign of either of them.

“We tried calling them, right? And we told them about going to dinner.”

“Fair enough.”

They stepped outside and locked the door before walking over to Mark’s car and getting in. Jack watched the house as they left the driveway and started wondering if this was a good idea. He was curious, though, about what would happen once they got far enough away from the house. They drove past a few houses before Jack felt a strange tingling sensation that changed into the feeling of something thumping the inside of his head.

_Geez, well aren’t you nice._ Anti groaned.

“Ow.” Jack rubbed his head.

_How do you think I feel?_

Jack looked over to see Mark wincing a bit before he focused back on driving.

“Yep. Forgot how uncomfortable it was.” Mark said plainly.

_Couldn’t have just gone upstairs to come get us?_ Anti grumbled.

_We called for you guys._ Jack replied.

_Wow, I can really see the effort you put into this._ Anti said sarcastically.

“So, where exactly are we going?” Mark asked aloud.

“I thought you knew. You said we were going to a fancy restaurant.” Jack replied.

“What’s a fancy restaurant?”

“Uh… Olive Garden? Red Lobster? Is that even fancy?”

“I don’t know… Outback Steakhouse?”

“Ooo, steak sounds good.”

“Outback Steakhouse it is.”

They drove to Outback Steakhouse and got seated at a booth, sitting next to one another.

“So, you feeling fancy yet?” Mark asked as he picked up his glass of root beer.

“Quite fancy, good sir.” Jack said, picking up his own glass and clinking it with Mark’s.

“Dark’s making fun of us.” Mark chuckled.

Of the four of them, Dark was the only actual “fancy” one. Jack smiled at the thought; Dark was probably complaining their composure or something similar as well. Tonight was their day to relax, though, so they should be able to have a little fun.

They both ordered steaks, and as the waiter brought over their food, they looked in awe.

“I think I’m so hungry that this steak looks like it is sparkling.” Mark commented.

“It’s sparkling ‘cause it’s a rare drop item.” Jack giggled.

The two of them cut off a piece of their steaks and took a bite.

“This is good steak.” Jack nodded.

“Mine is better.” Mark added.

“Oh really? Guess I better see for myself.” Jack reached over and stole a piece from Mark’s plate.

“Oh no you didn’t.” Mark reached over and stole a piece from Jack.

They ended up both having their arm’s crossed with one another’s as they were stealing each other’s food. They stopped to look at one another’s face before Mark booped Jack’s nose with the fork, getting sauce on it.

“Pfft, we’re fancy alright.” Jack huffed.

“You should hear what Dark is saying.” Mark added.

_I’m pretty sure this is how you’re supposed to eat steak._ Anti commented.

After the two of them finished their meals, or rather, the other person’s meal, they looked like a mess. Mark cleaned off his own face before grabbing another clean napkin and gentle rubbing Jack’s face with it.

“How’d you get sauce on your cheek?” Mark questioned.

“You did that to me.”

Mark leaned forward as he wiped off Jack’s face, looking up from Jack’s cheek to his eyes.

“Gotta make sure you have a fancy face.” Mark smiled.

“You should focus on your own face first, then.” Jack reached a hand up, rubbing his thumb carefully across Mark’s cheek, wiping off a smudge of sauce.

Mark slowed his movements until he lowered the napkin down to see Jack’s face clearly. He thought that Jack’s eyes were sparkling more than the steak was before. Jack let out a soft laugh as the two ended up staring at one another.

“Here is your check, gentlemen.” The waiter set the check down on their table as the two men jumped backwards a bit and looked over at the waiter.

_Ha, you just got blocked by a waiter._ Anti snickered.

_Shut up, nothing was going to happen anyway._ Jack grumbled.

_I saw your thoughts, Jacky, you can’t lie to me._

As Jack and Anti were talking, Mark payed for their meals, Jack too busy arguing with Anti and being flustered to try to offer his own money.

Mark scooted out from the booth and stepped down from the ledge it was perched on, holding out a hand to Jack.

“Watch your step.” He winked as Jack took his hand and stepped down from the booth.

Jack then folded their hands together and slipped past Mark, getting in front of him.

“Better keep up.” Jack smirked as he pulled Mark along.

He brought Mark outside and jumped up on a ledge, Mark following behind. The two of them started running on the ledge, and when they got to the end, Jack moved to the side to let Mark stand next to him. The sun was resting on the horizon, leaving a subtle pink and purple as the sun disappeared behind the line.

Mark tightened his hold on Jack’s hand, watching as night took over the sky.

“To a peaceful night.” Mark said softly.

Jack looked over at Mark, seeing how he looked up at the stars and smiled.

“To a peaceful night.” Jack answered back, turning to look up at the stars starting to appear.

…

Mark and Jack returned home, and after watching a show together in the living room, they got up to prepare to go to bed. Anti and Dark were both standing in the living room talking to each other when the others went up to their rooms to get their pajamas. When they came back downstairs, they saw Dark walking over to the stairs while Anti was in the center of the living room.

“Okay… what am I doing?” Anti asked.

“You will stand right there…” Dark said as shadows around Anti wrapped around his feet. “And you will teleport out of that.”

Anti looked down at his feet, trying to move his legs but they wouldn’t budge. He almost fell backwards when he bent both of his knees.

“You told me before that when the Dawn attacked you the other night, you couldn’t teleport away from the hold he had on your feet.”

“And?”

“You’re a Glitch Dusk, you should be able to teleport out of anything.”

Anti tried to teleport, his body flickered, but he didn’t move.

He tried again… and again… and again…

He looked up at Dark with an unamused face.

“What I said was true. Teleportation seems to be the ability you’re most familiar with, so we need you to learn how to fully control it. So, step one is to learn how to teleport yourself out of any situation, starting with this one.”

Anti tried teleporting again as Dark started walking up the stairs.

“You’re just gonna leave me like this?” Anti frowned.

“If you don’t figure out how to teleport out of there, then yes, you’ll be stuck there. Goodnight.”

Mark and Jack watched for a bit to see if Anti would be able to get out of the shadows, but after a few minutes, Mark went back to his room and Jack went to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Jack was in his room staring at his bed for a while when Mark walked into his room.

“Hey.” Mark hummed.

“Hey.”

“You know, you’re always welcome to stay in my room if you want.”

Jack looked over at Mark who was smiling softly.

“Really?”

“Really.” Mark put a hand on Jack’s shoulder in reassurance.

“Thanks, Mark, I appreciate it.” Jack looked over at the door. “But I think I’m gonna sleep in the living room tonight.”

Mark thought for a second before nodding his head in understanding and returned to his room.

Jack grabbed two pillows and the large blanket from his bed before taking them down to the living room. He found Anti laying on the floor, shadows still stuck to his feet, and he looked bored. As Jack walked over to him, he looked surprised before he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“Jack?”

Jack set the pillows and blanket down on the floor next to Anti.

“What are you doing?” Anti asked.

Jack laid down on the blanket and folded half of it over himself as he wrapped his arms around a pillow and rested his head on it, looking over at Anti.

“Keeping you company.” He responded simply.

“You don’t have to do that, you’re gonna get all uncomfortable here on the floor.”

“Then I guess we’ll be uncomfortable on the floor together.”

The house was dark and silent, the faint chirping of crickets being the only source of sound.

“So, tell me, what does a Glitch Dusk do exactly?” Jack asked.

“Not sure exactly; Dark says I can glitch my way around stuff and something about not needing to follow rules.”

“That sounds pretty cool.”

“Yeah, it’s cool if I can actually do it.” Anti emphasized his point by trying to teleport again, frame flickering once again as he tried.

“Well, I believe you can do it.” Jack smiled.

Anti looked at him with a bit of surprise before smiling back.

“I’ll try.” Anti huffed, though Jack could tell he was happier than before.

Jack tried to stay up to keep Anti company, but eventually he had fallen asleep. Anti was in the middle of talking when he looked over and noticed Jack sleeping. He saw how the blanket had fallen off of Jack and reached over to place it back over Jack. He appreciated that Jack was staying out here with him, wanting to lay under the blanket with him. He grabbed the other pillow and placed it next to Jack’s, moving the blanket so it was over the two of them as he put an arm over Jack’s chest, and fell asleep, not realizing that he had escaped the shadows that were around his feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to take a break and I ended up writing another septiplier story instead, because my brain doesn't understand what "take a break" means. But hey, now there's two stories on my profile, and I feel like that's progress... towards something... I think.
> 
> I love your comments, and feel free to say anything you want, suggestions and ideas are always welcome. And thanks to the people who wished me luck on my finals ^^ I just have next week left and then it's summer break!


	11. Act on Instinct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anti continues with a bit of teleportation training.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is a bit short, but it's what I was able to write today.

Anti woke up noticing the presence of someone else standing over Jack and him. His arm was already over Jack’s chest so he swung a leg over, effectively hovering over Jack as he summoned a knife in his left hand and snarled at the unknown person, acting on instinct to protect Jack.

“Woah, sorry for sneaking up on you.” Mark put his hands up and took a step back.

Anti realized who it was and dropped the snarl, sighing as the knife vanished from his hand.

“Uh…” Jack had woken up and noticed Anti holding himself up over him.

Anti glanced down at Jack before pushing off from his right hand and rolling over to his side. Jack sat up and looked around the room to see that Mark and Dark were both standing next to the two of them. Mark moved over to Jack and sat down next to him, though Dark stayed standing.

“How’d you sleep out here?” Mark asked Jack.

“Definitely not as comfortable as a bed, but it was fine.” He playfully swatted at Anti’s shoulder. “And this guy was like a clingy teddy bear.”

“I am not _clingy_ nor am I a _teddy bear_.” Anti growled.

Mark and Jack chuckled a bit as Anti just rolled his eyes and sat up himself.

“I see you escaped the shadows.” Dark hummed.

“I did?” Anti looked down at his feet. “I did.”

Then Dark put the shadows back around his feet and looked at Anti expectantly. Anti looked down at the shadows and frowned, then looked over at Jack who was smiling and nodding his head in encouragement. Anti closed his eyes and took a deep breath before teleporting himself out of the shadows, though only moving about a foot.

“Heck yeah!” Jack cheered.

“Yay, that’s good, right? I think that’s good, I don’t know how this training works.” Mark smiled.

Dark seemed to be debating something when a shadow enveloped Anti completely, trapping him. It was a bit more difficult escaping an area surrounding him rather than just his feet, but Anti closed his eyes once more and focused. He thought about the living room where he just was, where the others would be waiting, where the couches would be placed, and pictured the area where he would teleport, imagining that the wall of shadows wasn’t there. He just had to teleport like normal, the shadows didn’t matter, he could go around it. He felt himself teleporting out of his little shadow enclosure, expecting to see the others when he opened his eyes only to see they weren’t there.

“…what.” Not only was he alone, but it didn’t look like he was at the house either; he was hardly able to see with how dark it was.

“Jack?!” he immediately yelled; this was the first time he didn’t know exactly where Jack was. He frantically looked around, quickly gliding along the air and turning around corners, not trusting his teleportation since he was in an unknown area. He turned another corner to see Jack standing alone with his back turned to him, looking lost.

“Jack!” Anti called out and Jack turned, looking surprised.

Anti was about to glide over to him when he saw something step out of the shadows behind Jack and lift up some type of weapon, preparing to strike. Anti felt a wave of panic before he immediately teleported over to Jack and grabbed onto him before teleporting the two of them away. When Anti opened his eyes after teleporting, then two of them were standing behind one of the couches in the living room, Mark and Dark standing by the kitchen.

“What…” Anti still had a hand on Jack’s arm. “What the hell was that?!”

“I had an idea.” Dark said simply.

“You don’t _do_ that, Dark.” Anti growled.

“It’s part of training-“

“ _Part of training?!_ ”

Mark and Jack looked at each other with wide eyes, wondering what to do.

“Anti, listen, part of training is practice, but the other part is training without knowing exactly what it is. We’ve learned something from this experiment as well.”

“What.” Anti frowned.

“Jack seems to be your anchor, and your abilities appear to progress more when you’re acting on instinct.”

“So your plan was to take Jack and almost stab him?!”

“I wasn’t actually going to hurt him.”

“It sure looked like you were going to.”

“That’s the whole point of having you work on instinct, Anti.”

Anti let out an annoyed huff.

“This was your first time teleporting out of another spirit’s energy hold, this being your foot.”

“Yeah.”

“And then you escaped from my energy which had completely surrounded you.”

“…yeah.”

“And then you teleported yourself and Jack when you thought he was being attacked… and that would be your first time teleporting anyone other than yourself with you.”

“…yeah.” Anti sighed.

Dark stepped forwards towards Anti and set a hand on his shoulder.

“Anti, you have to trust me, you know I wouldn’t actually hurt you or Jack, right.” 

“Would’ve been nice to have some type of heads up.” Anti frowned.

“How about this, I’ll let Jack know if I have any more ideas like this one.”

“Slightly better.” Anti hummed.

Dark squeezed his shoulder before stepping away back over with Mark.

“Although we just woke up, I’d say this was enough practice for today.” Dark added before walking into the kitchen.

Anti watched for a moment before turning around and sitting on the couch, Jack going to sit next to him.

“I’m fine, Anti.” Jack tried to reassure.

“I know, I just wasn’t expecting everyone to disappear like that.” Anti sighed, then looked up at Jack and grinned. “But we gotta find a way to get him back for this.”

“Like a prank?” Jack smiled.

“Can you prank Dark?” Mark walked over to the two of them and sat down next to Jack.

“He’s your Dusk, you should know if we could.” Jack responded.

“I’ve never thought about it.” Mark shrugged.

“Well, then, we should start planning a prank that could fool Dark… if he can be fooled. You have to start giving us info about what we can prank him with.” Jack bumped shoulders with Mark.

“He’s cautious on a regular basis, though.” Mark added.

“I know he has a thing against us eating cake.” Anti commented.

They all looked up over the couch to watch Dark make something in the kitchen.

“Yeah, if he saw us all eating cake without anything else, he’d get upset.” Mark agreed.

“I can side with this plan.” Jack nodded.

“Not really a prank… but that works.” Anti grinned.

Coincidently, Dark happened to be making omelets in the kitchen and there were apples already cut up into slices on a plate.

“I’m pretty sure he’s the only reason why I don’t ever do junk food binges.” Mark huffed.

“But now you’re healthy.” Jack teased.

“Comes at a price.” He turned to look Jack in the eyes. “I will do the cake not-prank, I will definitely do that; cake is good.”

…

It was later that day, Jack was in his room looking through sites on his computer while Anti was laying on his bed flipping lazily through one of Jack’s books.

“I think you should do it.” Anti said nonchalantly.

“Do what?” Jack asked.

“Ask Mark out.”

Jack tensed up as Anti said that and almost accidentally threw his mouse off the table. He turned to face Anti and furrowed his brows.

“What the heck are you saying?” Jack asked, startled.

Anti turned away from the book and raised one eyebrow at Jack, silently going “really?”

“Anti, why?”

“I thought we already went over this, I’ve seen your thoughts, Jack, and honestly I think it’s kind of cute.” He turned his attention back to the book, though it didn’t look like he was really reading it. “Not my style, but hey, Mark makes you happy.”

“It’s not that easy, though…” Jack sighed.

“So you admit you want to ask him out?” Anti smirked.

Jack threw a pen at Anti, who just chuckled in response.

“What about Dark, though? And what about you?”

“I’m already told you I was fine with you getting kissy face with Mark-“

“Don’t say it like that.” Jack deadpanned.

“Okay, I already told you I was fine with you going out with Mark; I’ve seen what you think of him, and though I haven’t been with you long, you’ve been happiest when you’re here. As for Dark, who cares what he thinks?”

“I care.”

“And if Dark cares, then he’d do what makes Mark happy as well.” Anti raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“I’ll think about it.” Jack sighed, turning back to his computer.

Anti didn’t say anything after that, and Jack tried to resume what he was doing earlier on the computer, but his mind kept wandering to thoughts about Mark. If he asked out Mark, what would happen? Would Mark say yes? Would Dark be okay with it? Jack glanced at Anti who was back to looking through the book. He’d seen how Anti and Dark had been interacting lately, aside from this morning, but that seemed to have already been forgiven, and it seems like they were getting along. If he went out with Mark, would Anti go out with Dark?

Jack shook his head, clearing his mind from those thoughts; it was getting too confusing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm listening to musicals and movie soundtracks when I type these and my writing get's influenced by whatever song is on a tiny bit and it's actually kind of funny. I was listening to a love song when I wrote about Mark and Jack running around on a ledge looking at the stars after the restaurant last chapter, see what I mean XD
> 
> I don't know why I'm hesitant on positing this chapter... I feel like it's a bit rushed... oh well.
> 
> As always, comment about anything, suggestions and ideas are always welcome, and I'd love to hear what you guys think so far ^^


	12. Encounter with Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joining an association, dealing with that other association, and encountering Fate!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel better about this chapter and it's not as short either!

It was a few days later, Anti was still working on his teleportation ability, though this time it was focused more on his knives rather than teleporting himself. Dark had explained that since his knives were created using his energy, his teleportation ability should be able to effect those as well, making it so he could make the knives glitch through the air. Anti decided that the wall was a suitable target and kept throwing the knives there, and eventually Jack got tired of all the holes in the wall and bought him a dart board… and then three more.

Jack and Anti were in their room when they heard Dark calling them from downstairs. They went to the living room to find Mark down there as well.

“What?” Anti said plainly.

“I believe I know how to stop the association that has a grudge against you from going after you.” Dark answered.

“What is it?”

“Tonight there is a formal gathering of the spirits of the area, and some from the neighboring areas will be there too. It is highly likely that the association who’s after you will be there, as most spirits take part in this event.”

“Won’t they just go and attack me there?”

“No, this event is a peaceful gathering; no one is allowed to hurt anyone, nor is anyone allowed to take out their weapons.”

“And if they did?”

“There is going to be hundreds of other spirits there who would uphold the rules; if anyone tries anything, they’re going to get caught, kicked out, and targeted before they get anywhere.”

“So what, we’re just going to go and talk to them?”

“That’s part of it. However, I think it would be best if we made an association.” 

“Oooh, I see where this is going.” Mark added.

Mark and Jack both walked over to the couch to sit down, tired of standing.

“What, what is it?” Jack asked.

“Dark is like, really well known around here and other spirits generally stay out of his way. If he and Anti made an association together, Anti would immediately be connected with him and it might get the others to back off.” Mark continued.

“Oh, I see, that makes sense.” Jack nodded.

“How do we make an association?” Anti asked.

“I know how to make one, the only thing we need is a symbol.” Dark said, putting a piece of paper and a pen on the coffee table in front of Mark and Jack.

Mark and Jack smiled at one another as they started drawing little designs for what the symbol could be, Anti hovering above the coffee table to watch. The three made jokes at the drawings, some being obviously for fun rather than to be taken seriously. They then stopped at one that looked a bit like the power button symbol and the Triforce mixed together.

“I kinda like it. Simple, but neat.” Jack commented.

“I think it’s cool.” Mark added.

“As long as it doesn’t look too much like any other association’s symbol.” Dark said.

Anti picked up the paper and brought it over to Dark, who looked at it for a moment before nodding.

“This’ll work.”

Dark put his hands together as a small portion of his energy formed there, making small movements with his hands as the energy flickered. He then spoke something that wasn’t English as the energy died down. He opened his hands to reveal a silver tie clip with the same symbol the others made on it.

“It is done.” Dark said as he put the clip on his tie, straightening it out, then looking up at Anti. “Now, for you to join.”

“It’s not gonna be a dinky tie clip, is it?” Anti sighed.

“No, pick an accessory type and I’ll put it on.”

Anti looked at himself, thinking about a bracelet for his wrist, briefly thought of an anklet or a necklace, then he remembered he had ear piercings. He lifted a hand and tapped his left ear. Dark stepped closer until he could reach a hand up to Anti’s ear, gently brushing fingers on either side of the ear before using more energy to create a flat earring with the symbol on it.

“With this symbol…” Dark started, taking his hand away from Anti’s ear as the earring was complete. “You are now part of this association.”

“We need a name!” Jack suggested.

“Team Losers!” Mark threw his hands up.

“We can think of a name later, for now we need to head over to the meeting.” Dark looked over at Mark and Jack.

“Team Bacon!”

“Z-Men.”

“Shadow Moo.”

“Shadow Moo?”

“Shadow Men?”

“Midnight Moos.”

“Moonlight Moos.”

“Falling Night Moos.”

“…Nightfall.”

“… Oh… Nightfall… that’s actually not bad.”

They looked over at Dark and Anti for approval.

“Sounds like a videogame.” Anti shrugged.

“I think it’s kind of fitting.” Jack hummed.

“You could also say it’s kinda like we’re the ones who caused the downfall of the night… or something… word play!” Mark chuckled.

“If that’s what you all want to call it…” Dark sighed. “Then I suppose it is fine. But we really need to be on our way.”

Dark’s form disappeared as he returned to Mark’s mind.

“Oh, we have to switch.” Mark hummed.

Anti’s form disappeared as well, returning to Jack as well, and the two sat back on the couch as they felt the Dusks take over.

Dark stood up from the couch, looking down at Mark’s clothing before sighing and switching into his suit, shadows wrapping around him before returning to normal. Anti just glitched into his clothing.

“Come on, we don’t want to be late.” Dark said before grabbing onto Anti’s arm and transporting through the shadows.

…

Once they made it to the building, Dark brought them back out of the shadows and to the front doors.

“Just stay with me and don’t provoke anyone.” Dark instructed before opening the doors and leading them into the building.

The room was large and already filled with a lot of people. There were fancy tables and champagne glasses along with plates of neatly prepared snacks. Above everyone was fancy glass chandeliers and the back had large staircases leading to another large room. Most of the people they could see were talking with one another; some were scouting the room to see who all was there. Anti started inspecting everyone, noticing that some of them had little symbols signaling that they were part of an association. A few others started whispering to one another as they noticed Dark and Anti. Dark himself was having a conversation with some other spirits; Anti never really cared for this type of stuff and his mind started wandering. He noticed a table with drinks not that far from Dark and decided to go over to get one. He leaned against the table and sipped from the glass for a while, watching everyone talking with one another.

“It’s _you_.” a voice said and Anti turned to see a fairly young woman, a Dawn, possibly a teenager, glaring at him. “You’re the guy who broke into our base and broke our stuff!”

Anti set his drink down and looked confused.

“How the heck do you guys even know if it was me?”

“Because we all saw your face, dingus!”

Anti rolled his eyes and went to take another drink.

“You better watch yourself because as soon as you leave this place tonight, you’re not gonna be safe anymore.”

“I’m not scared of you.” Anti scoffed.

“Then I’ll teach you why you should be.” The girl clenched her jaw.

“Is there a problem?” Dark was suddenly there standing next to Anti.

“It’s none of your business, creep.” The girl shot.

Dark glared at the girl, looking displeased and straightened up a bit, causing him to look more intimidating since he was taller than her.

“I believe it is.” He said lowly.

“Look, this is an issue between me and him, you can stay out of it bas-“

“That’s enough.” Another Dawn woman, this one clearly an adult, put her hand on the girl’s shoulder and got her to stop talking.

“Eve, this is the guy who broke in that one time!” The girl exclaimed.

“I noticed, but you need to mind your manners.” Eve continued, then made a small gesture to Dark. “This is Dark, he is a well-respected man here.”

Eve lowered down to whisper something to the girl before the girl’s expression changed to shock as Eve stood back straight again.

“I apologize for anything that she may have said earlier, she is still learning about our system.”

“Well I hope she learns quickly.” Dark looked over at the girl who was more worried than fierce now. “You need to learn your place here.”

Eve looked at the symbol on Dark’s tie and looked over Anti until she found the symbol on Anti’s earring as well.

“You see, this man here-“ she gestured to Anti, “had recently broken into my association’s building and caused a disturbance, and we believe he had stolen some of our belongings as well, so you can see why some of our members are upset.” 

“And I have come to understand that one of your members broke into my _house_ in the middle of the night and interrupted my schedule, then tried to kill my guest.”

“Oh my god… is that where-“ the girl was cut off as Eve held her hand up to silence her.

“I see we both have had complications, I believe we can come up with an agreement, though?”

“Yes, tell your association to stop with the petty grudge and I will overlook your association's _lack of respect_.”

“I will let them know; we won’t be bothering either of you again.” Eve lowered her head as a respectful goodbye before taking the girl’s arm and dragged her away.

Dark turned to face Anti.

“We’re done with that, now.” He grabbed a drink of his own. “All that’s left is to see what we can find out about the group of Dusks that has been destroying the area.”

Anti left the talking to Dark, not liking how formal everything was. They didn’t find out much about the Dusks, though. Most people didn’t want to get involved with the Dusks and stayed out of it, and they mostly didn’t have any information about it anyway. They had moved upstairs when they were stopped by another adult woman.

“Dark, dear, how are you?” The woman, a Dusk, asked.

She was tall and slim, wearing a long elegant black dress and had long black hair pulled over her shoulder to one side.

“Fate.” Dark greeted. “I am doing well.”

“And who is this little darling with you?” Fate turned to Anti, getting uncomfortably close.

“This is Anti, he’s part of my association.” Dark answered.

“An association?” Fate looked a bit surprised but smiled at Anti. “You must be quite special then. You know, once upon a time I asked Dark if he wanted to make an association with me, I even told him we could lead it together, but he refused.”

She had a choker around her neck with a symbol for her own association, though. Anti looked over at Dark, but he couldn’t seem to read his expression.

“I do hope we will get some time you get to know each other more, I’m quite curious to see what type of person you are.” Fate brushed Anti’s cheek, tips of her fingernails glided across the skin.

Dark grabbed Anti’s wrist and frowned at Fate.

“You will have to excuse us, though, we are quite busy right now.” Dark said before leading Anti away from her to another part of the room.

It seemed as though Dark was getting jealous. Anti smirked at the thought and followed Dark. He let Dark cool off a bit before asking about it.

“So… who was that?” He asked.

“Fate. She’s would be the other… ‘respected’ Dusk around here. She’s a Dimension Dusk, quite powerful, which is how she got her status.”

“And she asked you to join her association?”

“It was a long time ago, she wanted us to form a group because of both our reputations and strengths. She was more interested in power and control, and I never liked the idea of dealing with other spirits, so I said no.”

“She seemed… charming.” Anti smirked as Dark glared at him.

“I would advise you to stay far away from her, she’ll only cause you trouble.” Dark replied quickly, covering a growl.

“Dark, calm down, I was just playing.” Anti chuckled. “I’m part of your group, not hers.”

Dark just sighed before continuing with his small investigation of the group of Dusks, though he kept a hand on Anti the entire time after their encounter with Fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more final to go and then I'm done!
> 
> Tell me what you guys think so far, I'd love to hear from you guys! ^^ And feel free to comment about anything, suggestions and ideas are always welcome and you just just throw a party in the comment section if you feel like it too.
> 
> Eve and Fate and all those characters are just random people I'm making up.


	13. Warm Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While writing this I wrote in all caps on my notes "I need another word for energy" because I've said the word energy so many times in one paragraph that I tried to change some of the words to something like energy, but there's... no other word for energy!
> 
> And then I listened to about 5 different songs on repeat, and wow I listened to "Your Reality" too many times while writing this.

Dark talked to most of the people at the event, and after getting as much information about the Dusks as it seemed he was going to get, he decided it was time to return home. Anti, since he wasn’t talking to anyone, found a way to entertain himself by getting more champagne whenever he ran out, and ended up half asleep on Dark’s arm. Dark had taken them to the door and stepped outside, finding a shadow, but Anti stopped him before he did anything.

“Wait, hold on, you should carry me this time… like… piggyback style… ‘cause I’m tired… and that’s a good sleeping…place…” Anti mumbled.

He didn’t really give Dark any time to answer as he walked over behind him and wrapped his arms around his neck. Dark smiled softly, though no one else saw, and put his hands back to catch Anti as he jumped up on his back. Dark then lowered the two of them into the shadows and started heading home. Anti adjusted himself so he could lay his head comfortably between Dark’s neck and shoulder and watched as the two of them glided through the shadows. He noticed Dark moved around the blurred areas where light was hitting the ground, causing the shadows disappear. There were streetlights, car headlights, that one person with their phone light, and the few lights pouring out from nearby buildings with clear windows.

Since Anti has been working on his teleportation ability, he started wondering if there was some way to get around the lights blocking the path, and eventually thought about what Dark had said when they were talking about connections between two spirits. Dark had explained that two spirits, if they had a strong enough bond, could use their abilities together. Anti could teleport and Dark could travel through shadows, if they used those two abilities together, then couldn’t they teleport through shadows?

Anti looked forwards to see another larger light blur in their path, and Dark would have to go around it, but Anti spoke up first.

“Don’t try to go around that one…” he said lowly, still half asleep.

“You know I can’t go through that, right?”

“Yeah, I know, I wanna try somethin’.”

“It wouldn’t exactly be the… greatest feeling if we ran into that.”

“I know. You said earlier that you wanted me to trust you, well, then you gotta trust me too.” Anti hummed.

“Alright.” Dark responded, and continued heading towards the blur in their path.

Anti closed his eyes and began to focus on what he was going to do. He thought back to when he was half-dying on the couch and how Dark had given energy to him, how he felt the strange flow of a different energy than his own, but how it seemed to work with his to heal his body. He then began to move his own energy, imitating the process of giving Dark some of his energy, feeling it flow through him as it mixed with Dark’s. He could then feel Dark transferring energy back to him as well, and concentrated on the two types merging together. If this was going to work, then they had to work together as one. Dark already had the shadows covered, all Anti had to do was teleport them through the light blocking their path.

It didn’t matter if this wasn’t how teleporting worked, Anti had reminded himself, because he was a Glitch Dusk and he could do this.

Anti opened his eyes as they got closer to the wall, he took a deep breath, and as they were about to reach it, he shut his eyes and felt his energy spark as he tried to teleport them past it. It reminded Anti a lot of how his teleportation usually was, but this time he felt the difference with Dark’s energy having a notable presence alongside his.

He felt Dark slow to a stop before he opened his eyes and found that they were on the other side of the wall.

“Ha, we did it.” Anti said sleepily while smiling.

“It seems we did.” Dark hummed, looking back at the blurred light wall among the shadows.

Dark continued on their way back home after he understood what Anti had done. When they got to the house, he moved over to Mark’s bedroom before stepping out of the shadows. Anti had ended up falling asleep on Dark’s back, so he set Anti down on the bed and went to Jack’s room to grab comfortable pajamas before returning to Anti to switch his clothing. He did the same for himself, knowing that Mark never liked waking up in a suit, and moved Anti so he could lay the two of them underneath the covers.

Anti looked peaceful while asleep, though it seemed he subconsciously gravitated towards Dark and cuddled into him. Dark chuckled softly, wondering how he had gotten so attached to Anti in a short amount of time, and leaned forwards to place a kiss on Anti’s lips, being careful not to wake him up, before moving to rest his forehead on Anti’s. 

It seems that their connection with one another was getting better, so Dark decided to try something else as he drifted off to sleep.

…

Anti didn’t know exactly when he had fallen asleep, but he found himself in the mindscape with Jack, both sitting underneath the giant tree in the grassy clearing. He started to silently feel the silver earring he had, fingers brushing against the indent of the symbol, and let out a sigh.

“I think you should do it.” Jack said, looking out over the little horizon of trees in the distance.

“Do what?” Anti asked.

“Ask Dark out.”

Anti turned his head suddenly, hand stilling at his ear and stared at Jack.

“Oh, how the tides have turned.” Jack chuckled.

Anti frowned, though didn’t say anything, and Jack looked over at the hand still touching the earring.

“Let me guess…” Jack started. “You’re wondering if being in an association with Dark means anything because when he asked you to make one with him, it didn’t seem like anything important, and more like he was doing it for business reasons.”

Anti lowered his hand and looked at the ground.

“Well, I think you’re looking at it the wrong way.” Jack smiled.

Anti looked back up at him and tilted his head in confusion.

“Let’s look at what we already know. We know that Dark has said multiple times that he doesn’t like how associations work, and we know that he was asked to join one with Fate, that other really powerful Dusk or whoever she was, and he said no because he still doesn’t like associations and said she was more focused on controlling a huge group for power. Yet, even though he clearly doesn’t like associations, he made one for you.”

Anti brought his hand back up to feel the earring once more, his gaze lowering as he thought about what Jack was saying.

“And the reason he made one for you was to keep you safe, Anti. He wants to protect you.” Jack finished as he scooted over to Anti and bumped their shoulders together.

“How do you know that’s what it really is?” Anti finally asked.

“Trust me, I know how you feel. For the longest time I kept thinking that the only reason Mark invited me to stay at his house was because we’re friends and I texted him about moving out, so he was just doing the kind thing because that’s the type of person he is. But then I got to thinking about it, and when I saw how Dark made the association for you, I finally realized that Mark was doing the same thing for me. He had wanted to protect me, wanted to know that I’d be safe because we’d be living under the same roof so he could make sure nothing bad happened.”

“Of course Mark did that to keep you safe.” Anti rolled his eyes, but laughed.

“So I can say the same thing about Dark, ya dummy.”

Anti bumped their shoulders again, though adding more force than Jack and almost caused him to fall over.

“I guess we’re both pretty bad at this.” Anti hummed quietly after a while.

“Between you and me, we can blame Mark and Dark for being bad at showing it.” Jack smirked, and the two laughed a bit afterwards.

Anti then turned his head to the other side towards the line of trees there and hummed in confusion.

“It feels… like… Dark is back?” Anti questioned when he felt the foreign presence of someone else there similarly to when Dark first made his appearance here.

The two of them watched as someone stepped out from the trees, realizing that it was Dark, but noticed someone else following behind him.

“…Mark?” Jack questioned quietly.

“I think… that’s Mark.” Anti nodded.

Dark noticed them by the tree and started walking over to them while Mark was following but kept turning around to look at everything. When they got closer, Mark finally noticed Jack and Anti under the tree.

“Jack?” He questioned as they made it to the tree.

“What’re you doin’ here?” Jack asked, looking at Anti who just shrugged.

“Where is ‘here’?”

“We are currently in Jack’s mindscape.” Dark clarified.

“We’re what?” Mark was puzzled.

“He’s right, this is my mind…scape.” Jack agreed.

Mark moved to sit next to Jack and poked his cheek.

“Sorry, just making sure you’re real.” Mark commented before looking up at Dark. “You’re the one who did this, right?”

“Yes, I wanted to see if it was possible to move both of our presences here rather than just mine now.” Dark responded and looked around at all of the trees. “I see it looks better since the last time I was here.”

“Oh, yeah, Anti fixed the place up now that the nightmares stopped.” Jack nodded.

“I would still like to take a look around, though.” Dark added, looking back over to the wooden house behind them.

Jack looked over at Anti and leaned forward to whisper to him, making sure the others couldn’t hear.

“Go with him!” Jack smiled, raising his eyebrows up and down a bit to get his point across.

“Fine, but this is a chance for you too.” Anti whispered back before standing up and walking with Dark towards the wooden house, most likely going to check on the wooden gazebo area that had the most damage from the nightmares last time.

Jack and Mark were left alone to sit underneath the tree together. It was a nice view, though; everything was green and swayed ever so slightly as though a gentle breeze was brushing through everything. Jack scooted over to Mark until he was close enough to lay his head on Mark’s shoulder. Mark lifted an arm up and put it around Jack’s shoulders, placing his hand on Jack’s arm and sighed in contentment.

“Is it possible to fall asleep while you’re already asleep?” Mark hummed.

“Maybe?”

They stayed like that for a while, half-dreaming but staying awake to appreciate one another’s presence, their shared warmth as they laid next to each other, relaxing in the mindscape, knowing that no one can hurt them here.

Then Jack had a ridiculous idea.

He wrapped an arm around Mark’s back and held onto him there before lifted his head a bit to see Mark’s face clearly.

“Ya ever roll down a grassy hill before?”

“Of course, I remember doing that when I was a kid. Why?” Mark replied.

Jack didn’t say anything in response and instead grabbed onto Mark with his other hand as well before using all of his strength to lift Mark off the ground and push him over to the side, using the momentum to get them to start rolling down the little hill they were on. Mark was surprised at first but started laughing after they were rolling down the hill, grabbing onto Jack as they fell. Once they reached the bottom of the hill and stopped moving, they took a minute to catch their breaths after laughing and laid next to one another. Mark was on his back and Jack was resting his head on Mark’s shoulder when he tilted his head up a bit to see Mark’s exposed neck and shoulder, seeing that his shirt had moved during the fall.

Jack had encouraged Anti to try to get something across to Dark, so he should be able to follow his own advice and do something as well.

Mark’s eyes were closed and he seemed relaxed as he rested on the grass with Jack. Jack decided to make his move and lightly kissed the skin of Mark’s shoulder. He looked up after Mark hadn’t said anything and noticed he had a small smile. Jack continued with his idea, placing another kiss a little higher up on the shoulder, and waited to see if Mark resisted. Jack continued the motion, making a small trail of kiss gradually reaching Mark’s neck with little breaks in between each kiss to give a chance for Mark to move if he didn’t like it. Mark turned his head to the other side and let out a sigh of contentment, giving Jack more room. Jack smiled as he moved upwards to kiss the side of Mark’s neck, no longer stopping between each one as he moved to the side of Mark’s jaw.

Mark eventually moved away to face Jack, warmth in his eyes as he smiled at him.

“C’mere.” He hummed before cupping Jack’s cheek and leaning forward, lips barely brushing before Mark finally added pressure to it.

Jack could feel the warmth of their lips connected, felt the flutter of his heartbeat as he moved against Mark, relishing in the sweet feeling of their lips, loving the moment but wanting more at the same time. Soon, both of their lips were parted as they moved together with the kiss, though neither of them did anything more than that.

Jack didn’t know how long they stayed in that position, but Mark eventually moved from Jack’s lips to the side of his cheek, dragging his bottom lip as he kissed the side of his face and nipped the bottom of Jack’s ear.

Jack put a hand on the side of Mark’s face to bring him back and peck his lips once more before smiling.

“Hey.” Jack tried not to laugh with how warm and fuzzy he was feeling.

“Hey.” Mark smiled back.

“That was nice.”

“You’re nice.”

They both chuckled lightly.

“Just want to clear this up now…” Mark hummed. “But if I want to do this in the future…” he leaned forward and captured Jack’s lips in another sweet kiss. “It’ll be okay, right?”

“Mmm… that would be something I would only do with… my significant other.” Jack responded.

“I’m feeling pretty significant.” Mark smirked lightly.

Jack leaned forward for another kiss, loving how it felt, and he thought he could probably get addicted to it if he had the chance.

“Then I’d say yes.” Jack answered.

Jack moved once more to lay his head back on Mark’s chest before closing his eyes and snuggling into him. He briefly thought about Anti and wondered if he was able to make any progress with Dark, but his thoughts shifted back to Mark when he started running a hand through Jack’s hair.

“So… how are we going to tell the others?” Mark asked softly.

“They’ll figure it out.” Jack replied as he rested an arm around Mark’s chest and rubbed random patterns with his thumb against Mark’s shirt.

He almost didn’t want to wake up, basking in the comfort and warmth of having Mark here, but he knew they still had work to do and they still had to find out who that gang of Dusks is. However, when Jack thought about it, he was kind of glad that the Dusks caused Jack to move out, because now he got to spend time with Mark like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter makes me happy :3
> 
> Comment about anything, I'll love to hear what y'all are thinking, and suggestions/ideas are always welcome, and now I really wanna know if you guys love this chapter as much as me because I think it's great. I love all my chapters but this one is a fabulous one.


	14. Sappy Energy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anti and Dark's turn for the smooches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god I've never written anything this mushy in my life and I love it but oh my god I would've never guessed Dark and Anti would be the two characters that I made be so sappy given that their natures are... the complete opposite of that. But hey, we all have feelings, including seemingly evil alter egos.
> 
> Also, the first few sentences of this are the same as last chapter, just to kind of pick up where Dark and Anti left off.  
> I would've posted this yesterday night but ao3 decided to give me the silent treatment.

“Yes, I wanted to see if it was possible to move both of our presences here rather than just mine now.” Dark responded and looked around at all of the trees. “I see it looks better since the last time I was here.”

“Oh, yeah, Anti fixed the place up now that the nightmares stopped.” Jack nodded.

“I would still like to take a look around, though.” Dark added, looking back over to the wooden house behind them.

Jack looked over at Anti and leaned forward to whisper to him, making sure the others couldn’t hear.

“Go with him!” Jack smiled, raising his eyebrows up and down a bit to get his point across.

“Fine, but this is a chance for you too.” Anti whispered back before standing up and walking with Dark towards the wooden house.

Anti and Dark walked around the building and behind it to see the little backyard-like area with the wooden gazebo. They almost imitated exactly what happened the first time Dark was here; Dark stood inside the gazebo and placed a hand on one of the pillars as Anti stood a few feet away and waited. Dark seemed pleased with his evaluation and nodded before returning to stand in front of Anti.

“So… Mark is here now…?” Anti hummed.

“Yes.”

Anti frowned a bit at Dark’s lack of explanation but carried on anyway.

“What made you wanna do that?”

“Remember when I said that if two spirits had a strong enough connection, they could use their abilities together?”

Anti nodded.

“That’s what we did earlier, when I was taking us through the shadows and you teleported us past one of the light barriers.”

“That’s what I was thinking about when we did it.” Anti grinned.

“We are still only beginning to use our connection, though, and it is still fairly small, but it has been getting stronger these past few days. I wanted to test to see how it has progressed by trying to move Mark’s consciousness here rather than just my own. Moving a spirit’s mind is one thing, but trying to move the human’s mind very different and more difficult. However, it seems our connection has progressed enough to allow me to move Mark’s consciousness alongside mine to this mindscape.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to do cool shit in the future?” Anti said in awe.

“Yes, I told you before, the fact that you’re a Glitch Dusk makes your ability not only powerful by itself, but if we have a strong connection you could lend me that ability as well… and then we can do ‘cool shit’.” Dark smirked at the last bit.

“Well, then how do we make the connection stronger?” Anti stifled a laugh at Dark.

“There are many ways the connection can be strengthened, merely being next to each other slowly effects it, however…”

Dark took both of Anti’s hands in his and directed both of them to sit down on the grass in front of one another.

“It would help to familiarize ourselves with the other’s energy, become close enough with it to be able to act like it is our own without a second thought, almost instinctual.”

Dark pulled Anti closer until their knees were pressed together and leaned forward to rest their foreheads together, both closing their eyes.

“So, give me your energy…” Dark hummed softly. “And I’ll give you mine.”

Anti started to feel Dark’s energy flow into him through their folded hands and returned the motion, visualizing the two energies moving through one another. 

It was a strange feeling, just having Dark’s energy be simply _there_. He wasn’t using it to heal himself, nor were they currently using any of their abilities, they were just existing. And it felt… strangely nice. Anti didn’t know if it was because they weren’t actually using the energy or because it was Dark’s energy, but it felt warm and comfortable, like he was sitting in a tub of warm water as it washed over him, leaving pleasant fuzzy feelings in his skin, his bones, his center. It felt nice… maybe a little _too_ nice, but Anti didn’t want to let go, didn’t want the thrumming under his skin to go away. He had to start taking deep breaths just to keep himself calm and briefly thought about how Jack compared him to a cat; if he was a cat, he’d probably be purring.

And that’s when he felt it, the blossom of warmth against his lips, and when he opened his eyes, he realized Dark had tilted his head to kiss him. Anti smiled as he kissed back, the pleasant humming of energy under his skin making him more tuned in to his senses. He nipped Dark’s bottom lip and felt Dark tighten his grasp on his hands, and he finally gave into the urge he had to get closer. He let go of Dark’s hands and crawled into his lap, placing his hands on the side of Dark’s face to tilt his head upwards for another, rougher kiss, dipping his tongue between Dark’s lips and met with his. He heard Dark let out a low growl and he gripped onto Anti’s hips. Everywhere they touched, they could feel each other’s energy, sparking with life. Anti adjusted himself on Dark’s lap and rolled his hips down, drawing out another growl from Dark. Anti gave Dark another bruising kiss before dragging himself away from Dark’s lips and moving down to his throat, biting on the skin there, but not enough to break the skin. Dark nuzzled into the side of Anti’s face, energy zinging at the contact, and it reminded Anti of a cat rubbing their scent on their stuff.

“Hey Darky, I gotta question.” Anti mumbled between leaving marks on Dark’s neck.

“Mmm?” Dark made a low rumble next to his ear.

“If spirits can pick up on other spirits’ energy…” Anti dragged his fingers down Dark’s sides. “What would happen if we mixed our energy like this?”

“Then everyone would know you’re _mine_.” Dark brought Anti’s face back up and licked into his mouth, fighting with Anti’s tongue and readjusting his grip as Anti rocked his hips against him.

“Gotta have it work both ways, Darky.” Anti smirked and nipped at Dark’s cheek. “’Cause you’re also mine.”

Anti brought his hands back down to Dark’s sides and slipped them underneath his dress shirt, but Dark grabbed his wrists before he could do anything else.

“As appealing as your train of thought is, Anti, you have to remember where we are.” Dark brought their hands back in the air between the two of them, giving Anti a softer kiss before moving him from his lap.

“No fun.” Anti pouted, though he grinned afterwards.

“There is a time and place for everything.”

“God, you sound so old.” Anti chuckled as Dark huffed.

Dark moved the two of them over to one of the trees and rested his back against it, pulling Anti to rest his back against Dark’s chest, and he wrapped his arms around Anti’s torso and folded his hands together.

Anti could feel Dark’s energy flowing through him again, a gentle pulse underneath Dark’s hands, and he rested his head back against Dark’s shoulder.

“Think that made the connection better?” Anti teased, resting his hands on top of Dark’s.

He could feel Dark rustle a bit underneath him, low rumble from chuckling.

It was odd seeing Dark like this; he always seemed so stern and proper, and Anti wasn’t used to seeing him act relaxed. Now, here he was laying against Dark like a couple in a cheesy romance, hands interlaced together. Anti thought this was probably the first time Dark loosened up around anyone else before, and he liked the thought of him being the only one to see Dark like this.

The two of them spent the majority of the night laying underneath the tree in the same position, energy moving between the two in a slow circulation. They never saw Mark or Jack, so they guessed they were off doing their own thing, and neither of them minded.

Anti could tell it wouldn’t be long before they woke up, Dark inevitably returning back to Mark’s mindscape, and he let out a sigh. He thought back to when he and Jack were talking about the association, thoughts still lingering in his mind, and he decided that he should just outright ask Dark about it.

“I want you to answer something for me.” He finally said after thinking over how to phrase the question.

“What is it?”

“Why’d you decide to make our association, or Nightfall I suppose it’s called now.”

“Because it would get the other association to stop with their grudge.”

“If it was only that, you could’ve just told them to back off just by just being an acquaintance with me, I didn’t need to be in your group to let that association know you didn’t want them picking on me anymore.”

Dark’s arms tensed a bit around Anti.

“Just… tell me the real reason.” Anti continued.

“Being in this association with you… Nightfall… it makes it official… it lets everyone else know we are together… that you belong with me.” Dark murmured, and dropped his head down, hair brushing against Anti’s cheek as he said barely above a whisper, “and you can’t leave me if you’re in Nightfall with me.”

A pang of realization and sadness hit Anti as Dark said those last words. Dark was afraid that Anti would leave him… and it made him want to cuddle up to Dark until all those fears and doubts melted away. He could tell Dark wasn’t used to being so… _vulnerable_ with anyone, so Anti didn’t say a word as he turned around in Dark’s embrace and wrapped his arms around his chest, nuzzling his cheek, letting his energy flowing between them and speak for him. He hoped Dark could understand his silent reassurance, his promise that he wasn’t going anywhere, and kissed his temple.

Geez even he was acting a lot more sappy than normal.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you… so just…” Dark murmured.

“I’m here, Dark, I’m not going anywhere. You have me.” Anti hummed.

And they stayed like that, nestled together in one another’s embrace, dreading the moment when they had to wake up.

“Thank you…” Anti finally said after thoroughly nuzzling Dark’s cheek.

“Hmm?” Dark pulled back to see Anti’s eyes.

“For trusting me enough to show this side of yourself.” Anti ran his hands threw the soft fluff of hair on Dark’s head and pulled him in to nip at his lips again. “Let me be the only one who sees it.” Dark placed his hands on Anti’s cheeks, fingers under his ears, returning the kiss.

“Then don’t let anyone else touch you.” Dark’s voice rumbled. 

“Aw, not even Jack or Mark? What about movie cuddle time?” Anti teased.

“Family is permitted.” Dark responded simply.

_Family._

But that’s practically what they were now. Anti always knew he was protective of Jack, it was his natural instinct to protect him, but his skin prickled at the thought of someone else hurting Mark now too.

“You got yourself a deal.” Anti smirked.

Dark smiled and brought Anti’s head down to rest against his shoulder again, resting his own head lightly against Anti’s. They both moved their arms to wrap around one another in a hug once more and relaxed in the final moments of the night.

“Remind me to never act this mushy in public.” Anti mumbled.

“Then don’t” Dark chuckled as Anti swatted at him. “I’m the only one allowed to see this side of you too.”

“Good, ‘cause we got an intimidatin’ reputation to uphold.”

They gave their hug a final small squeeze as they closed their eyes and felt their humans begin to wake up, returning to the real world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaah guysss, this is the first time I wrote something that went farther than light fluffy kisses, tell me how I did!  
> I'm so nervous about this stuff, and I'm sure you're wondering if they're ever going to progress to the whole rated M stuff because I labeled this story mature partly for violence but because I planned on them getting more "intimate" *wink wink* but I've never written that stuff before, I got all flustered just writing this chapter!  
> But I'm working on it; baby steps guys, taking baby steps, but hopefully I'll work up the courage to write the more romantic stuff because I'm sure 90% of you would love to see that.


	15. Familiar Woman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry guys but I'm a sucker for this energy stuff.
> 
> It's one of my favorite things.
> 
> Half of this chapter is me typing about energy.
> 
> I flippin' love the idea of lending each other energy and being all fluffy about it its adorable to me okay

Jack had caught himself smiling more often than not, the past few days seeming to be brighter now that he had a caring and adorable boyfriend. When they had woken up that first night when Mark and Jack were in the mindscape together, they ended up just staring sleepily at each other while smiling. Mark leaned forward to kiss Jack, who happily complied, and Anti teased him the whole time.

Jack noticed that Anti seemed a lot happier too, though. If he thought Anti was clingy before, he was practically a koala bear to Dark. The two spirits started to stay out of the mindscape more, Dark finding something to work on or pass the time with and Anti would find some way to attach himself to Dark.

One day, Jack was passing by the living room, seeing Dark sitting on the couch holding a book up with his right hand as his left was holding onto Anti who was koala-bearing onto his side. Anti had his eyes closed and was rubbing his cheek slowly against Dark’s shoulder, looking content and smiling.

“Your energy’s so warm.” He heard Anti mumble and watched as Dark leaned over to kiss to top of his head and respond with a murmur that sounded a lot like “all for you.”

So, of course, Jack decided to ask about it.

“What’s goin’ on here?” He asked as he plopped down on the other couch.

“Anti is mooching off of me.” Dark replied, not looking up from his book.

“Am not.” Anti hummed, not opening his eyes.

Jack looked mildly concerned.

“You’re taking my energy and not giving anything back, hence, you’re mooching.” Dark continued.

“You said I could.”

Jack’s expression turned to that of confusion.

“What…?” Jack questioned.

“Want me to explain?” Dark looked up from his book.

Jack nodded, being as new to the spirit world as Anti is and still didn’t know everything there is about spirits. Dark set his book down to the side and began the explanation.

“To understand what’s happening, you first need to know what our energy is to us. Every spirit is made entirely out of their own type of energy; it’s the source of our power and our existence. Everything we are is our energy. However, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, we do share human characteristics and elements whenever we are in control of our human’s body. But when we are in our own form outside of the body…”

Dark lifted his free hand out as a shadow rose from the ground, cutting a line across his finger. Black liquid, seemingly like blood but looked more shiny and thinner, escaped from the small cut and he showed it to Jack.

“Even our blood is composed of our energy.” He pulled out a handkerchief and cleaned off the blood, revealing the cut to have already healed itself.

“It’s very important to always have energy, to always have some on reserve, because without it we cannot use any of our abilities or even maintain our physical form. Usually, a spirit will never get low enough to lose their form, they usually return to the mindscape and go into a type of sleep to regenerate energy. They won’t be able to protect their person, though, and usually puts them at risk.”

“Wait… so what happens if they lose their form?” Jack asked.

“At the center of every spirit is what’s known as their ‘core’. It is the equivalent to your heart, it is the main source of our energy, and the most protected thing we have. The only way you will get to a spirit’s core is if they willingly take it out, which will almost _never_ happen, or if you force them to use up every ounce of energy they have until they can no longer maintain their form around it to protect it, and they will be reduced to just their core.”

“What’s it look like?”

Dark put his free hand to his chest and took a deep breath before something seemed to phase through his chest, guided by his hand, and hovered slightly above it. Jack watched in awe as Dark held his hand out showing a small glowing sphere with different shades of purples and black flowing around it like a cosmic fog. It was breathtaking and seemed to radiate life, and as Jack looked up to meet Dark’s eyes, he was staring at him with an almost threateningly serious look. Anti had opened his eyes to watch and glanced over at Dark with a hint of worry.

Dark’s core was only out for a few seconds before it returned back to his chest, his demeanor instantly relaxing from his previously threatening manner.

“If someone gets their hands on a spirit’s core… then they could end the spirit’s life in an instant.” Dark continued, then lightened up as he returned to explaining spirits’ energy.

“Then there is the matter of _how much_ energy a spirit can generate at one time. Most of it is just how you are created, a ‘luck of the draw’ type scenario, but it is possible to train yourself to be able to use more. The more energy a spirit has, the longer they are able to use their abilities and the more power and force they can put behind it. The most well-known and feared spirits are usually the ones who have an… excessive amount of energy.”

“And that includes yourself, right?” Jack asked.

“Yes, I’ve never had a problem with running low on energy, never gotten close to having a problem with it.” He turned to look over at Anti. “I usually cover up my energy signature, but there are certain situations where it shows, such as the time when we encountered the nightmare Dusk in person.”

Anti made a tight lipped frown at the memory, still unnerved by it.

“And it would be rude to flaunt my energy signature without any restraint. It would be like walking into a room only to find a guy and get hit with an obnoxiously disgraceful wall of cologne.”

Jack chuckled at the comparison.

“In addition, spirits generally only disclose their signatures like that if they are acting offensively.”

Jack nodded, finding all of this information intriguing even if it wasn’t what he was expecting when he asked about Anti taking energy.

“Now that I’ve explained that,” it was as if Dark had read his mind, “I can explain what we’re doing now. It is possible for spirits to transfer energy to one another, such as the time when the Dawn attacked the house, if the two different energies are compatible. Because Anti is a Glitch Dusk, he is capable of using any type of Dusk energy, which is why our energy is compatible with one another.”

Anti closed his eyes again and continued cuddling up to Dark at that.

“And as I explained before, I have more than enough energy to care for myself, so Anti is mooching off of me so he can have more energy himself.”

“You said I could, so don’t call it mooching.” Anti frowned.

“He’s mooching.” Dark nodded then picked up his book and continued reading where he left off.

[*Hey, Look, Picture*](https://galaxykittyda.deviantart.com/art/Dusks-and-Dawns-Ch-15-746424410?ga_submit_new=10%3A1527171922)

…

Now, Jack was at the grocery store picking up ingredients and food for the house, seeing as they were running low on food and they still had the cake not-so-much-a-prank prank to do. Jack was alone once more, Anti watching from the mindscape, as he leaned against the cart handle and walked through the aisles.

It had taken a bit to get Mark let him go outside alone again; neither of them wanted to be that couple that worried over everything and didn’t let their partner go outside without them. There were rules, though, that they came up with to compromise. Jack could go outside alone as long as he stayed in touch with Mark to make sure he was safe and didn’t stay out too late, being sure to stay in some type of public area so he wouldn’t be cornered alone.

He walked past the bakery portion of the grocery store that had pre-made goodies which caught Anti’s attention.

_Look at that one!_

_What one?_

_That cake there, with the pink frosting!_

Jack stopped the cart to look at the row of cakes and found the one pink cake Anti was referring to. It looked like it was bathed in frosting and he could practically see the sugar crash in their future.

_Anti, I think we might actually die from sweetness by eating that._

_Which is why it’s perfect for the cake prank!_

He had a point.

_Okay, I’ll get it, but there is no way we’re going to eat this all at once._

Jack put the container holding the death-by-sugar cake in the cart and continued crossing off items on his mental shopping list until he got everything. He paid for them and fit everything into his large backpack and satchel, everything else going into one of those cloth bags grocery stores sell, the cake container being in the bottom of that.

_This cake is making everything heavy._ Jack complained.

_We could switch and I can teleport us home._

_Dark said we shouldn’t do that in public because it’s easy to detect your energy signature when you switch and he wants us to be cautious._

_They’re worrying too much over nothing._

_Well… I mean…_

_Don’t remind me._ Anti sighed.

Jack started making his way home when he noticed someone on the opposite side of the sidewalk walking in the opposite direction.

_That person…_ Jack started.

_What?_

_Have we seen her before?_

_I don’t know, wasn’t paying attention._

Jack turned around and started following the woman from the other side of the road.

_Ya know, Jacky, this is how the stalker life begins._

_I’m not stalking her._ Jack huffed. _She looks familiar, I’m trying to figure out where we’ve seen her before, I know we’ve seen her somewhere._

She turned a few corners and Jack follow, wondering where she was going and kept thinking about events in the past in an attempt to spark some type of memory as to who she is. She walked into a coffee shop and Jack crossed the street and entered the store as well.

He looked around the store, it was filled with other customers and people chatting at tables, but he couldn’t find the woman.

_Where’d she go?_

Jack felt someone grab his arm and pull him to the side.

“Looking for me?” The girl smirked, though her eyes showed playfulness.

“Uh… no! I wasn’t, I mean… I’m not-“ Jack stuttered.

The girl started laughing and directed the two of them to sit at a table across from one another against the wall.

“I could tell you were following me a long time ago, dear, but I’ll take it as a compliment.” The woman smiled.

“Uh, sorry, I wasn’t trying to be creepy or anything.”

“Don’t you worry, I can tell you’re not the creepy type.” The woman’s tone was light and happy. “So, how can I help ya, darling?”

“Oh, it was nothing, I thought you looked familiar.” Jack looked sheepish.

“Aw, that’s a shame.” The woman sighed, but smiled once more. “I remember your face, dear, but that’s alright, we only met for a second, even though it wasn’t exactly us.”

“What?” Jack tilted his head in confusion.

_Ha, this amuses me._ Anti teased.

“You’re much more adorable in person, I must say.” The girl covered her mouth politely as she giggled.

“Did you say you know me?”

One of the baristas working at the store called out a drink and the woman stood up.

“Sorry, dear, that’s my order, and I’m running a bit late, but I would love to see you again. I have some information about the Dusks you’re looking for if that’s any consolation.”

“Wait, hold on, what?” Jack stood up from his seat and looked at the woman in surprise. “How do you know about that?!”

“Why don’t you meet me for dinner tomorrow at Festa de Fantasia, 5:30 so it doesn’t get too late, I’ll tell you what I know and maybe we can get to know each other better.” The woman walked over and grabbed her drink. “And don’t worry dear, I know a face in love when I see one, I’m not going to try anything on you.” She winked, Jack blushing in embarrassment. “But I’d prefer if it was just the two of us, dear, nothing against Dark and all, but Fate says he’ll just ruin the evening.”

The woman left the store before Jack could try to say anything, finally realizing where he recognized her from.

_That was Fate’s…human? That’s weird to say._

_Ugh, I don’t want to go._ Anti grumbled.

Jack grabbed his bags and started walking home once more.

_She said she knows about the Dusks, though. This could be our chance to get some information about them._ Jack added.

_I don’t like her._

_Now it’s my turn to do that whole ‘I know your thoughts’ thing. I know you don’t want to go because it’s too much like a date and you don’t want to go without Dark. I’d rather go to dinner with Mark as well, but if she knows something and is willing to tell us tomorrow, then we should go._

_How the hell are we supposed to go out tomorrow without the others knowing, though?_

_Why don’t we just tell them the truth so there aren’t any misunderstandings?_

Anti seemed to laugh in the mindscape at that.

_There’s no way in hell Dark would let us do that, if he finds out he’d probably stay up all night just to make sure we don’t sneak out._ Anti said flatly.

_But technically we’re going to dinner for business reasons._

_And we’re going to meet with one of the other most powerful Dusks in the area who, during the one time we met her with Dark, flirted with us and made Dark take us to the other side of the room and kept a hand on us the rest of the night because he got jealous of her even talking to us when he was standing right there, Jack, and you think he’ll let us go across town alone to meet with her?_

_Well now you’re making the situation seem bad._

_Not lookin’ to be in our favor._

_But hey, if this goes well, then it’s one step to proving we can handle ourselves aaaand we’ll have information that Dark himself hasn’t been able to get._

_I like the idea ‘n all, but he’ll end up askin’ how we got that information in the first place, and it didn’t fall from the sky._

Jack readjusted the bags as he started getting tired of carrying them.

_We’ll think of something, but for now, why don’t we first focus on carrying this stuff home because my arm is hurting._

_Fine, find a private place or something and then we can switch and I’ll get us home._

They ended up finding an employees’ resting area that’s behind a line of buildings that wasn’t being used and the building seemed relatively empty at the time. They switched and Anti teleported the two of them back home.

Jack made sure to hide the cake in his room so Dark wouldn’t see it in the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you don't know any restaurants at all so you put "Fancy Feast" like the cat food into google translate Portuguese and get "Festa de Fantasia". Go me for making up restaurants now! ... but I'm pretty sure that means "fantasy festival" or something similar and not "fancy feast"
> 
> And hey look, Fate's back, yay for me reminding myself that there's the whole Dusk plot going on. I keep forgetting about that.
> 
> Edit: Guys I actually drew a picture for the story! I made a deviantart account and everything! I have no drawing experience except for what I have self taught but I'm pretty proud of it.  
> Incase the link failed at life, here it is: https://galaxykittyda.deviantart.com/art/Dusks-and-Dawns-Ch-15-746424410?ga_submit_new=10%3A1527171922
> 
> Someone please tell me if neither of the links are working


	16. Not a Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys I started drawing pictures for this story! I explain more in bottom notes!

Jack wasn’t looking forward to tonight; he was going to meet with Fate and her human, whatever he name was, and he had to keep it a secret from Mark and Dark. He kind of felt like he was doing stuff behind Mark’s back, and he didn’t want to do that to his boyfriend, but this was an opportunity to find out about the Dusks they’re looking for.

He found himself tapping his fingers together and on whatever surface he was next to. He was sitting on the couch tapping the arm of the seat when Mark found him and sat down next to him.

“Hey, Boo.” Mark hummed as he set a hand on Jack’s thigh. “You’ve been acting tense all day… is everything alright?”

Jack let out a sigh, still looking to the side as though the wall had all the answers.

“You’re not hurt or anything, right?” Mark asked as he laid his head over on Jack’s shoulder.

“No, no, nothing like that.” Jack finally answered after sighing again and putting his hand on Mark’s.

“Hmm… are you mad?” Mark turned his hand around to fit his fingers together with Jack’s hand, squeezing gently.

“No.”

“Sad?”

“…kind of.”

Mark let go of Jack’s hand to cup Jack’s cheek and turn his face to look at him, giving him a tender kiss, lasting more than a few seconds before he moved away.

“Anything I can do to make you feel better?” Mark asked.

“You already did.” Jack gave him a small smile.

Mark leaned forward to give Jack a light kiss on the nose.

“What’s got you so sad?” He asked.

“I… I can’t tell you, and that’s why it’s making me sad.”

“Why can’t you tell me?” Mark frowned slightly, but was trying to keep an open mind.

“I have to go out tonight… but I can’t say _where_.” Jack sighed.

“Is it something… bad?”

“No, no, it’s not bad, if I wasn’t comfortable doing this then I wouldn’t be going in the first place. But…” He reached up to grab Mark’s hand and link their fingers together again. “I need you to trust me on this…”

“I _do_ trust you, but I’m also worried for you.”

“Anti’s going to be there with me and we’re going to be careful.”

Just then, Dark walked down the stairs with Anti holding onto him, seemingly unfazed by having the other spirit clinging to him like a backpack. He looked over and saw Mark and Jack sitting on the couch, easily noticing the not-so-happy atmosphere.

[*Hey, Look, Picture*](https://galaxykittyda.deviantart.com/art/Dusks-and-Dawns-Ch-16-746983125)

“What are you two doing?” Dark asked, walking over to the bookshelf in the room to put away the few books he had in his hands.

Jack looked over at Mark and squeezed his hand, silently asking Mark to trust him.

“Uh… Jack was just telling me that he has to go back to the grocery store because he forgot to get something yesterday.” Mark improvised.

Dark put the books away and turned around, noticing Mark’s hesitation and looking between the two of them.

“Yep.” Jack sighed to play along. “Stupid me forgot the milk.”

He was very happy he remembered he used the last of the milk this morning for breakfast. And hey, it was kind of true, if he would’ve bought milk yesterday they wouldn’t be out of it now.

“You can always go tomorrow.” Dark suggested.

“Then how are we supposed to have cereal tomorrow morning without milk?!” Mark argued.

“Make something else for breakfast.” Dark said plainly.

Anti was looking over Dark’s shoulder and had his eyes wide open, looking apprehensive, though he didn’t say anything.

“I’d rather just go get the milk now and get it over with.” Jack said.

“We can go with you and take the car so you won’t have to walk.” Dark continued.

“No!” Anti said hastily, making the room go quiet.

He then realized Dark was expecting some kind of reason as to why not.

“How will Jack ever learn from his mistakes if ya give him the easy way out? He should walk alone and think about… milk… the whole time.” Anti responded, frowning from behind Dark’s view and making a face that said “get him to believe it!”

“Yep, that’s the only way I’ll learn… I have to go on a milk walk of shame… by myself… tonight.” Jack nodded.

Dark quirked an eyebrow up as Mark nodded in agreement.

“And while you’re out over there, you can check to see if that one store nearby has that new desk in yet.” Mark added.

Jack smiled, realizing Mark was trying to buy him some extra time if his not-a-date dinner with Fate and her human lasted longer than a trip to the grocery store for milk.

“Yes, I’ll do that, I’ll go check for the desk while I’m gone.” Jack hummed.

“And maybe we can go get ice cream.” Anti said to the side.

“We do not need ice cream.” Jack shook his head, but smiled anyway.

Dark seemed suspicious but didn’t say anything afterwards, leaving the living room to go back upstairs.

When it was time for Jack to leave, Anti had returned to the mindscape and Mark stood by the front door to see them off.

“I’m pretty sure Dark knows something is up, he’s perceptive like that.” Mark sighed.

“I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I’ll text you alright.” Jack reassured.

“Stay safe… with whatever you’re doing…” Mark tried to smile, still worried. “I’ll do my best to keep Dark here; I have a feeling he might want to follow you two.”

 _Everyone’s stalker life begins somewhere._ Anti huffed, lightening the mood a little.

“Heh…” Jack smiled a bit. “Anti just called him a stalker.”

“Well, wish me luck to prevent that from happening I guess?” Mark shrugged.

“Good luck… to the both of us.” Jack nodded, stepping forward to give Mark a tight hug before letting go and leaving the house.

…

The walk to the restaurant went by faster than Jack had wanted it to, still tense even though he gave himself a pep talk the entire walk there.

 _Last time we had a … quarrel… with another spirit was because he caught us off guard, but this time, I don’t think we can be any more on edge than we are now._ Anti noted. _If anything happens I’m going to get us out of there._

Jack nodded and walked into the restaurant, staring wide-eyed at the interior. The restaurant itself was huge on the outside, but on the inside it looked like a super expensive and fancy royal establishment. The tables he could see were gorgeous and spread out greatly as though each table was seen as its own room, giving the customers a sense of privacy since there were no other tables nearby. Crystals decorated almost every surface, the light reflecting off of them to make the room feel like it was glowing with fireflies dancing in the air.

Jack was brought out of his daze when someone cleared their throat. He turned to see a fancy waiter behind that front counter area of the restaurant where the workers ask how many people there are in your group. The waiter seemed to look over Jack’s appearance and frown a bit, probably wondering what he was doing in such as high-end place like this wearing plain jeans and a hoodie.

 _Why you wearing that anyway?_ Anti questioned.

_Because I didn’t know this place was that fancy! And we’re just here to get information; I’m not going to dress up nice to try to impress her or anything because I don’t want to do that._

“Can I help you?” The waiter asked lowly, sounding more like a question as to why he’s here rather than to offer services.

“I’m… meeting someone here…” Jack mumbled, concerned about the waiter.

The waiter quirked an eyebrow and seemed skeptical, not believing Jack was actually supposed to be here. He typed something on the computer in front of him and turned to Jack slowly once more.

“Name?”

_My name or your name or Fate’s name? Wait, I don’t even know Fate’s human’s name?!_

_All of them???_

The waiter seemed to have expected Jack’s hesitance on answering the question and waited patiently for him to give up.

“He’s with me, dear.” A voice called to the two of them as a woman walked up from behind the little counter.

She beckoned Jack to come over and he glanced at the waiter as who just frowned as he passed by.

“My apologizes for not meeting you at the door, but they were having trouble setting up our table.” The woman said as she led them to a staircase in the back of the building.

They went up to the second story of the building to see more tables that looked even more fancy than the ones down stairs, if that was even possible, but they also had walls and large glass doors separating the tables from one another. Jack looked around, seeing only a few people around, then looked through one of the glass doors of a room to the side and saw Fate sitting at a table for four. The woman went on ahead and opened the door, holding it while she waited for Jack.

After seeing Fate, Anti made himself corporeal and stood next to Jack closely.

“Is it good or bad that Fate is out of the body?” Jack whispered to Anti.

“Good because she’s not as strong as she could be if she was controlling the human body, but bad because she can still do things and won’t have the few seconds of switching time if she was in the mindscape.” Anti replied.

They walked over to the door, Anti going in first with Jack close behind and stayed standing as the woman walked in herself and let the door shut.

“Anti, dear, it’s nice to see you again!” Fate smiled as she stood up and walked over to Anti, taking one of his hands and kissing the knuckles.

Anti jerked his hand away and made a gross face.

“Aw, come on, the men shouldn’t be the only one who can make polite gestures, I think taking someone’s hand like that is lovely.” Fate replied, not bothered by Anti’s face and turned to sit back down.

The human sat down next to Fate on her side and looked to Jack and Anti, waiting for them to sit down across from them, which they did.

“Anti, I know you don’t like her, but can you at least try to not make faces that people would make in a garbage dump?” Jack mumbled quietly to Anti.

“But that’s what I’m lookin’ at.” Anti grumbled back, earning a shoulder whack from Jack.

“I’d like to apologize in advance for Fate’s behavior.” The woman spoke up. “I got stuck with a Dusk who’s almost nothing like me, aside from us both saying ‘dear’.”

“I should probably say the same.” Jack smiled slightly.

Anti just rolled his eyes and looked at the empty spot in front of him on the table.

“I thought spirits don’t eat?” Jack asked.

“We don’t, but it’s only polite to sit together at the table; I don’t want to have to speak through Angeline.” Fate responded.

“I wouldn’t know how to explain anything either.” The woman, Angeline, added. “Fate may be a huge figure in the spirit world, but I’m not really that involved with it.”

“Alright, then tell us what ya know.” Anti said plainly.

“Anti.” Jack grumbled.

“No, no, I understand, but we should at least relax a bit before we get straight to the point; let the others have time to eat and all.” Fate smiled.

Angeline handed Jack a silver and white menu while she lifted up her own menu.

“The food here is divine, you should really give it a chance... oh, I haven’t gotten your name…”

“Jack.”

“You should really give the food here a chance, Jack.” Angeline said happily.

Jack felt something grab his left leg just above the knee and looked down, seeing Anti’s hand there. Jack moved to gently pat his hand, though made no effort to move it, Anti keeping his hand there.

A waitress came over after a few minutes and placed a bowl of rolls on the table as well as giving Jack and Angeline each a small bowl of lightly dressed salad.

Anti snickered at it; Jack swatted at the arm holding onto him.

They made small talk, Angeline was happy with their company and Fate kept making faces at Anti. Anti only glared occasionally and looked over at Jack’s food, trying not to look at the two women. He was getting impatient and irked each minute they talked about anything other than the reason they came.

Finally, after waiting long enough for their entrées to arrive, Fate finally started giving them useful information.

“So, you’ve been looking for information on the Dusks…” Fate started, voice lacking the carefree vibe that she had before.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Jack asked.

“Oh, dear, I _was_ at the meeting with you and Dark, I saw him asking around about them, I’m not deaf.”

“Why didn’t you say anything then?” Anti huffed.

“I’m not blind either; I saw how Dark dragged you across the room.” Fate chuckled. “Besides, he didn’t give me a chance to say anything.”

“Well, here’s your chance.” Anti said flatly.

“Straight to the point, I see.” Fate smiled, then sighed. “Look, hun, I know you don’t trust me that much right now but… you need to trust me with this; I wouldn’t get involved with them.”

“Why not.” Anti glared.

“First of all, the groups of Dusks isn’t a group of _Dusks_ ; both types are there.”

“So there are Dawns too?” Jack asked.

“Yes; the leader of the group has the Dusks do all the dirty work and get known to the public while everyone else stays hidden.”

“What are they trying to do?”

“Right now they aren’t doing much more than scouting around and destroying stuff at night. I had my association look into it a bit just to see what they were up to; it seems they cause havoc around in areas to draw out other spirits and try to recruit them. They’re super showy about their strengths and it makes other equally obnoxious spirits tempted to join them because they see that group as a good position to be in. They want to be feared.”

“And you just let them get away with it?” Anti grumbled.

“I’m a sensible woman in charge of an association, I know when to take risks and when to mind my own business.”

“Oh, and this growing group of Dusks and Dawns isn’t concerning you at all?” Anti frowned.

“I’m in charge of a well-known association, he won’t mess with me and I won’t mess with him.” Fate frowned back.

“So we’re just supposed to let them do whatever they want?” Anti scoffed.

“You need to know when to stay away from other spirits, dear.” Fate narrowed her eyes.

“I thought you were the head of a powerful association, are you saying this guy is stronger than you?”

“He has dangerous abilities you never want to come to face with.” Fate said lowly.

“Which is why we need to do something now before he recruits more people! Who even is _he_ anyway?!”

“I’ve already sent people to try to get him to stop.” Fate growled. “And their future was almost ruined because of it.”

Anti glared as the table got quiet. Jack and Angeline just stared at each other with worry.

“Anti, dear, if you caught the attention of Dark then there must be something different about you, and aside from that…” Fate sighed softly. “You remind me of an old friend of mine… and I can do for you what I couldn’t do for him. You must _not_ confront this guy until you have some type of plan and the firepower to back it up.”

“What makes this guy so scary?” Anti asked, voice not as harsh as it was before.

“He’s a Mind Dawn… He can turn you into a completely different person… lost to the world… no longer the same. It won’t matter how strong you are, if he gets to you, you won’t be safe. When I sent people to scope him out, they came back terrified, saying he did something to their mind and they couldn’t get in contact with their spirits. They were able to escape before he destroyed their minds, but… I cannot rely on luck once more. Anti… you have to be careful with this guy, if he finds out you’re looking for him, he won’t ignore it. It’s better to stay away from him until you have some type of plan.”

Anti sighed and put his head down on his free hand, rubbing his temple.

“Do we even have a name for him?” He asked.

“No.” Fate replied simply.

It was silent for a few minutes until the waitress came back to clean up the plates and placed two ice cream desserts on the table for Jack and Angeline.

“Oh, it’s chocolate with a strawberry touch, I think those are so sweet.” Fate sang, returning to her normal carefree demeanor.

“And you said we couldn’t get ice cream.” Anti smirked at Jack.

“Well, you’re not eating it.” Jack huffed, picking up a spoon and getting a nice portion of the dessert before eating it in front of Anti and making a face to tease him.

Jack’s phone buzzed as he got a new message from Mark. They had sent a few texts back and forth during the dinner, Mark mentioned that Dark wanted to know when they’d be home for their dinner, and Jack replied with a “don’t wait up for me.” He looked down at his phone to read the text and frowned.

“You should probably think about heading home, like, now… Dark knows you aren’t at the grocery store, and I got him to stay here for this long but he’s getting ready to go look for you.”

Jack checked the time and mentally slapped himself for not checking sooner; he stayed a lot longer than he intended and it was already getting dark outside.

“I’m sorry, but we need to get going now.” Jack hummed as he finished the last of his ice cream and put the spoon down.

“Already? Aw, that’s too bad, I was really hoping you two could stick around afterwards.” Fate pouted.

“Yeah, yeah, Fate, they have lives you know.” Angeline rolled her eyes.

They all stood up, Angeline going over to shake Jack’s hand and said goodbye. Fate walked around the table to Anti to say her goodbyes as well, though Anti didn’t move to do anything.

“Oh, you.” Fate chuckled and moved quickly to hold the underside of his chin before kissing each side of his cheek… except… it was wet.

Fate leaned back and had her tongue between her lips slightly, smirking as Anti realized what she just did. Anti jerked backwards to get away from her but she managed to scrap his neck where the scar was with her painted fingernails.

The places where she did-more-than-kiss kissed and scrapped his neck prickled and Anti felt his face sicken. He made a distressed face before glitching over to Jack and grabbing his arm.

“We’re leaving.” He spat before teleporting the two of them out of the room.

It took a few hops, Anti unable to teleport them the full distance to the house in one try, but they eventually landed in the living room where Mark was waiting.

“Jack?” He was surprised.

“Uh… I’m home?” Jack shrugged.

They turned to look at Anti but he teleported out of the room before they could say anything. Dark walked down the stairs and looked at Jack, his face more stern than usual.

“He just now teleported somewhere.” Jack answered Dark’s silent question as he nodded and went back upstairs.

Jack walked over to the couch and sat down, Mark following after him.

“So… can you tell me now?” Mark asked.

“Yeah… but first…”

“What?”

“We still don’t have milk for tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angeline is a nice gal.  
> Fate doesn't understand what personal space means.
> 
> I wrote way more than I planned because I was planning on having a short dinner and then writing about Dark talking to Anti about it but that's going to have to wait 'till next chapter.
> 
> But pictures! I made my own deviantart since last chapter and I already made two pictures for this story (on chapter 3 and 15) and I would love for you guys to take a look if you would like, because if you guys think it's cool I might add some for the other chapters. If you guys have a certain scene or something you wanna see me draw, comment it in that chapter and I'll see what I can do! :3  
> Unless they're getting "close" because I don't want to draw that, writing it embarrasses me enough, please don't make me draw out these guys doing stuff like that, keep it nice.
> 
> Art Link for this chapter: https://galaxykittyda.deviantart.com/art/Dusks-and-Dawns-Ch-16-746983125


	17. Stick Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to get the courage to write something steamy and it didn't get any farther than kissing again.
> 
> aaaaaah, one day...

_Get it off, get it off, get it off, getitoffgetitoffgetitoff_

Anti was in the connected bathroom to Jack’s room and had his legs crossed together as he hovered by the counter and stared in the mirror, holding a wash rag and rubbing it harshly against the skin of one of his cheeks.

He could feel the skin prickling with disgust and he _hated_ it, hated how gross it felt and he wanted it to go away. He would constantly switch between cheeks, rubbing the cloth against his face in an attempt to get rid of any trace of Fate. He washed the cloth off in water again as he moved to his neck and hissed as he rubbed against the skin there, irritating the scar with his movements.

Anti winced when he moved the cloth away from his neck to see it covered with a red splotch. His scar normally didn’t bleed, hell, his normal blood wasn’t even red, but the scar was strange in that way and he aggravated it enough to start bleeding.

If that’s what it was going to take to get rid of Fate’s presence, then so be it.

He moved the cloth back to his neck and was about to continue his forceful scrubbing when a hand caught his wrist.

“Don’t.” The voice said, and Anti looked up at the mirror to see Dark standing behind him.

Dark moved to the side and turned Anti to face him, carefully prying the cloth from his hands and setting it on the counter.

“You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that.” Dark hummed, grabbing another, clean, washcloth and getting it slightly wet before lifting Anti’s chin up with his other hand.

Dark lightly dabbed at the scar, careful not to rub against the skin, and cleaned up the blood seeping out of it.

“This doesn’t heal normally?” Dark wanted to confirm.

“No…” Anti mumbled.

Dark hummed an acknowledgment and continued cleaning up Anti’s neck. Anti turned his head to the side, not looking at Dark, and tried to think of anything else. Then he felt the gross prickling feeling crawl back to his cheeks and he brought his hands back up to his face, rubbing the heels of his palms against the skin upwards while his nails racked against the skin on the downwards motion.

_-Don’t let anyone else touch you-_ The memory resurfaced in Anti’s mind as he shut his eyes.

Fate touched him, she _kissed_ him with her tongue… her _tongue_. Anti let out a quiet whine as he rubbed his cheeks until he felt Dark grab both of his wrists to halt the movements.

“What did I tell you?” Dark questioned.

_-Don’t let anyone else touch you.-_

“You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that.” Dark said again, placing the other washcloth to the side and guiding Anti to sit on the counter himself, no longer hovering above empty air.

Dark stood in front of Anti, standing eye level with him and gently cupped the side of his face, rubbing small circles on the skin under Anti’s ears. He leaned forward, lips brushing Anti’s temple and hummed.

“I know you didn’t go to the store.” Dark said quietly, moving down Anti’s face to his neck. “And it’s quite obvious something happened.” Dark kissed the end of the scar, giving it a gentle nip when he felt Anti tense up. “So…” Dark let his tongue run across the spot where he nipped, earning a shudder from Anti. “When are you going to tell me what happened?”

Anti tried to hold back from making any noises, but Dark started kissing along his scar, the sensations a drastic difference from when Fate touched it, getting almost too sensitive from Dark’s touches. His mouth felt good against the scar… because the scar was strange in that way, and Anti tipped his head back to give Dark more room against his better judgement.

Dark smirked at went to one end of the scar before licking along it all the way to the other end, Anti gasping as a whine escaped from him.

“Dah- Dark…” Anti breathed out. “Wha- ha, what are you doin’?”

“Using my mouth.” Dark hummed. “I suggest you do the same to tell me what happened.”

Dark found the middle of the scar and closed his lips around it, sucking the skin and running his tongue along it. Anti keened and threw his hands up to grab onto Dark’s hair, breath stuttering and heavy.

The itchiness of his skin from Fate was being replaced by a warm blissful feeling spreading throughout his neck and rising to his face. He felt his face heat up as Dark moved from his neck to look him in the eyes, gaze filled with perfect composure as he stared at Anti.

Anti finally gave in and pulled Dark’s hair, bringing him forward to lick into his mouth, tasting a hint of blood but didn’t care. He groaned when Dark pushed back against his mouth and moved with him, feeling little traces of their energy mingling between the kiss. It was warm and comforting but also filled with Anti’s eagerness to familiarize himself with Dark’s lips and tongue. Dark let Anti do what he wanted, taking in the little moans Anti made and hummed when he felt a fang-like tooth from Anti graze against his bottom lip.

Dark pulled back far too early for Anti’s liking and he tried to lean forward to catch Dark’s lips again, but Dark still had a grip on his face and held him back.

“You still haven’t answered my question.” Dark said calmly.

Anti looked down, mouth slightly open and panting lightly from their kiss, but didn’t say anything.

“Don’t make me guess.” Dark continued, turning Anti’s face to one side to view his cheek. “Because you know I’ll get it right.” He leaned forward to nip at Anti’s cheek before licking the skin there as well.

Anti closed his eyes once more and held in a whimper, trying not to let Dark know how much his touch was affecting him.

“You’re not hurt.” Dark acknowledged. “And I can sense that you still have your normal amount of energy.” After giving Anti’s cheek a generous amount of attention, he turned Anti’s face to do the same to the other side. “And something is bothering you regarding your cheeks and neck.”

Anti shivered as Dark licked along his other cheek, unable to keep his mouth closed as he struggled to keep his breathing even. 

“And since there are no marks of anything happening to you aside from what you’ve done to yourself in here…” Dark nipped his cheek before moving back to see Anti’s full face once more. “Then it means it’s something bothering you mentally.”

Anti frowned.

“So… who touched you?” Dark’s eyes were soft but Anti could see the coolness of his serious nature in there as well.

He couldn’t lie... and he didn’t want to either, so Anti let out a subtle sigh to answer the question.

“Fate…”

Immediately Anti could feel the shift in atmosphere as the softness left Dark’s eyes and his normal restraint of his energy wavered; Anti sensing the dramatic change of his energy signature and tensed up on instinct, his mind telling him to be afraid of a spirit this strong.

Anti snapped out of it quickly enough to wrap his arms around Dark’s neck and bury his face against him.

“It wasn’t like that-“ Anti tried to explain but was cut off.

“I know.” 

Then Anti realized it was probably obvious that he had no intentions of doing something with Fate since he was hastily trying to get rid of any trace of her even if it meant causing himself to bleed.

“Tell me.” Dark added, voice cold.

Anti leaned back, though kept his arms snuggly secure around Dark’s neck, and looked at his eyes, noticing they were more red than usual.

“Tell me what she did.” Dark repeated.

“She… she just kissed my cheeks and one of her nails rubbed against the scar; that was it.” Anti left out the fact that it was more of a French kiss that would disturb any normal person if a practical stranger did that to them.

Dark narrowed his eyes and Anti could tell he was more furious with Fate than him.

“Dark, listen, Jack and I just found her human on the street and she invited us to dinner and offered to give us information on that group of Dusks if we came, so we went and got useful information. When we got up to leave, Fate decided to do that cheek kissing thing and that’s what happened, she wasn’t trying to do anything else.” Anti explained quickly.

He felt Dark’s energy finally dull down until it was covered up like it usually was, no longer causing Anti’s instincts to flip out. His eyes were no longer overly red, but they still showed he was upset.

Anti moved to hook his legs around Dark’s waist and nuzzled his face back into Dark’s neck.

“It was Jack’s idea to actually go anyway…” Anti mumbled after a few moments of silence.

Dark finally moved and let out a heavy sigh.

“I suppose we should talk about this information you gathered with the others.”

Anti just hummed and rested his weight against Dark, who let out another huff and put a hand under Anti to hold him up as he left the bathroom.

“You’re lucky we’re home.” Dark sighed as he carried Anti out of Jack’s bedroom to the hallway.

Home was the only place Dark allowed Anti to treat him like a teddy bear and be seen treating Anti like a koala bear.

“You love these cuddles just as much as I do, you softie.” Anti chuckled.

“My statement still stands.” Dark responded as he walked down the stairs to the living room, sitting on the other couch as Mark and Jack were taking up the first one.

The room became tense once more as Dark sat down on the couch and looked over at the others; Anti could tell that Dark was probably unintentionally scaring them by glaring. Anti unhooked his legs and moved them to lay across Dark’s lap instead, still holding his neck and resting his head there, but he turned his body so he could see Jack and Mark now.

“What information did you get?” Dark asked coldly, not caring who answered as long as someone did.

“So, the group of Dusks aren’t only Dusks, apparently the leader of the group sends the Dusks out at night to draw attention and try to recruit other spirits while everyone else stays behind the scenes.” Jack started explaining.

“Who’s the leader?”

“We don’t have a name on him yet, but we know he’s a Mind Dawn, and apparently he’s very intimidating or strong because Fate doesn’t want to mess with him. She kept telling us to stay away from anything regarding his group.”

Dark visibly stiffened at the mention of the leader being a Mind Dawn, Jack stopped talking after he noticed.

The room was eerily silent for a long while and Anti looked up at Dark to see he wasn’t looking at anyone in particular but was thinking to himself. Dark eventually brought up his arm closest to Anti and put it around his back, holding Anti closer to him.

“Did she say anything about him aside from his type?” He finally asked.

“She said she sent people to look around and see what he’s up to and they came back terrified and something about losing connection with their spirits. She said they were able to escape before he could screw with their minds but she didn’t want to rely on luck again.” Jack answered.

After Dark didn’t respond, Jack started quietly talking about everything else that happened at the dinner, some of the weird topics that were brought up like asking who was the first person to look at a pineapple with its pokey outside and deem it worthy to eat, and then he talked about the coffee shop where he met with Angeline.

They ran out of topics to talk about but Dark still hadn’t said anything, and they could all tell they weren’t allowed to leave until Dark let them.

Silence.

And then finally-

“You two are no longer allowed to leave without us.” Dark said to Jack and Anti.

“What?! You can’t keep us locked in here.” Anti argued.

“You’re not locked in here, you just can’t leave alone.”

Anti scoffed and shook Dark’s arm off of him, leaning further away to properly glare at Dark.

“If we’re not allowed to leave alone then we wouldn’t have ever gotten that information in the first place.”

“You can-“

“Dark, if you knew we were going to meet with Fate today would you have let us gone?”

“…”

“See! This is exactly why your idea is stupid.”

“I admit that it was useful information, but from now on you cannot go alone. I will try to keep an open mind about future matters, even if it includes… Fate… but now that I know a Mind Dawn is involved we cannot act carelessly.”

“Carelessly?! Dark, when are you going to stop treating me like a damn baby?! I swear to god it seems like you expect me to walk up to any spirit I meet and let them do whatever they want!”

“Anti…”

And that’s when Anti saw it… Dark hid it quickly and at first Anti didn’t think it really happened… but he saw fear in Dark’s eyes… glossy for a split-second resembling that of a lost child.

Was he… _afraid_ of the Mind Dawn?

“Is… this guy… really that bad?” Anti asked softly.

“I am not worried about the Dawn himself, he can easily be manageable, it’s his abilities that concern me.” Dark answered coolly, Anti wondering once more if what he saw really happened. “Mental injuries are a lot more complicated and... potentially permanent compared to physical injuries that we are used to.”

“Mental injuries…?”

“Remember how you said Fate’s scouts came back saying that they weren’t connected with their spirits?”

Anti nodded.

“Imagine facing the Mind Dawn and then suddenly you had no control over anything and couldn’t talk to Jack, leaving him alone as though you never existed.”

Anti felt a chill run down his spine.

Dark sighed and put his arm back around Anti, pulling him over to his chest once more.

“How about I phrase it like this, I’ll feel better if you didn’t go out alone anymore.”

Anti blinked and looked over at Jack and Mark who seemed just as surprised. Dark, the supposedly stone-faced intimidating Dusk… just mentioned his feelings.

Anti made a small smile and tucked his head under Dark’s.

“You love these cuddles just as much as I do, you softie.” Anti said quietly, only loud enough for Dark to hear, though meaning something different this time.

“Well, that’s fine with me, then.” Jack said aloud to the group.

“I guess I get to follow you around town now.” Mark chuckled.

“Everyone’s stalker life begins somewhere.” Anti smirked.

“Oh my g- Welp, Anti has now said that about everyone in this room.” Jack sighed.

Dark looked down at Anti, waiting for an actual confirmation to stay together.

“Fine.” Anti huffed, though he wasn’t upset and smiled. “If it’ll get you to stop glaring at us all.”

“I was not glaring.”

“Kinda were.” Anti grinned.

The mood of the room lightened up as everyone relaxed once more. Mark moved to grab the remote and turned something on for the t.v. 

“So,” Dark hummed to Anti. “How’s your practice been going?”

“Oh yeah… that’s a thing.” Anti grumbled.

“We’ll be doing more training tomorrow.” Dark chuckled lightly.

“You know what I just realized.” Jack spoke up.

“Hmm?” Mark questioned.

“You’re going to have to go with me to go get milk tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone please tell me they understood what Anti meant when he said the "you love these cuddles" thing the second time.  
> Please
> 
> And yes, milk is important guys! You can't expect them to have a mornin' of Lucky Charms without milk?!


	18. Cake Prank at Last

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone forgot, the cake prank was introduced in ch.11 when Dark hid Jack from Anti and acted like he was about to hurt him to get Anti to learn how to teleport more than just himself (being himself and Jack in that instance). Then Anti got upset that Dark did that to Jack and they planned the cake prank to get on Dark's nerves because he's a health nut.
> 
> And then Jack finally bought the cake in ch. 15, and only one day passed during ch. 16-17, so no the cake is not stale guys XD this chapter will be day two since they bought it.

Mark drove Jack to the grocery store.

They got milk.

It was a pretty nice morning.

Then Dark and Anti went out of the mindscape to continue with Anti’s training when they got home. Mark and Jack were sitting on the couch, resting their forearms on the back of the couch and leaning over it as they watched. Anti was standing near the base of the stairs, idly throwing one of his knives up in the air and catching it while Dark was setting up something on the other side of the room.

Dark, with the curtains closed to keep the light out, created two target-shaped shadows in front of one another from the ground up to about chest height. He stood to the side, leaving a clear path between the targets and Anti, then folded his hands behind his back.

“You’ve got the majority of your teleporting down; you can teleport yourself others by contact, but now you need to learn how to do it to your energy regardless of whether you are in contact with it or not.” Dark explained. “Your knives are your weapons you can create using your energy, so…” He gestured to the shadowy target behind the first one. “Throw the knife in a straight line and hit the second target.”

Anti had been practicing the last few days trying to do that, evident with the four dartboards in Jack’s room full of knife marks. He had gotten close at successfully glitching the knife through the air, causing it to flicker, but he hasn’t yet been able to get it to completely disappear and reappear in the line of trajectory.

Jack and Mark smiled as they rested against the couch, finding it cool to watch their spirits train like this. It was almost like watching superhero training… or something; they weren’t doing things that humans could, so superhero training!

Anti tossed the knife up in the air a few more times before he drew his hand back and tossed the knife towards the targets, feeling his energy flit as he tried to get the knife to glitch past the first target. It flickered a bit, but didn’t fully disappear and hit the first target.

Dark watched as the knife flew across the air, noting that it hit the first shadow before looking back at Anti, waiting for him to try again.

Anti threw a couple more knives, trying a few different tactics such as changing positions and throwing speed and even moved to stand on the first step of the stairs.

Dark gave a few tips, trying to get Anti to change how he was thinking rather than how he physically threw the knives. Eventually, Anti threw a knife that flickered more and ended up half way inside of the first target.

“Woah, did you see that?” Mark gasped.

“Hold up.” Jack smiled as he got off of the couch and walked over to the target, leaning down to take a closer look at the knife that seemed half phased into the shadow.

He turned to Anti and gave him a thumbs up.

“Dude, you’re getting close!” Jack cheered as Anti smiled lightly at the encouragement.

Dark brought Jack to stand over next to him, out of line from Anti’s knives, and they continued watching as more knives were thrown at the shadows. They were flickering more, one of them went through one of the other knives stuck in the target. Anti was getting close and everyone was filled with anticipation as they waited for him to finally get it.

Dark leaned over and whispered to Jack, unnoticed by Anti.

“Remember when I said I’d tell you when I was about to do something to you to help with Anti’s training?”

Jack turned to him and frowned a bit.

“Yeah?”

“I’m about to do something.”

They looked over at Anti who had his attention focused on the shadows and was taking a few deep breathes to concentrate. Jack felt Dark put a hand on his back and they waited for Anti to make his move.

Anti drew his hand back once more and flung the knife at the shadows once more, and just as the knife left his hand, Dark pushed Jack in front of the shadows. Jack gasped and stumbled forward, turning his head to see the knife going straight for his chest.

Anti’s eyes widened and felt his entire body tense and become cold as he realized what was happening.

_No no no nonononono._

He felt every fiber in his being will the knife to disappear, to go past Jack, to avoid hitting him, to do anything else but hurt Jack. He held his hand out and the familiar spark of energy jolted through his body as the knife flickered.

He heard Jack yelp.

The room was silent as Mark stared wide eyed, Jack looked terrified, Dark looked smug, and Anti was breathing quickly.

The knife had glitched through Jack and the first shadow, hitting the middle of the second shadow in the back.

“Ah… Dark… that warning wasn’t much help.” Jack said slowly.

Anti had fallen forward and was now lying face down on the floor.

“Whyyyyyyyyy.” Anti whined.

“Jack?” Mark asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jack answered, turning to look at Dark and made a pouty face.

“Don’t worry, I put up a shadow right against your chest that would’ve taken the hit for you if it didn’t work.” Dark hummed. “But it did work.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah.” Anti kept whining, moving his hand up to flip off Dark.

“How’d you know this would’ve helped?” Jack asked, stepping away from the shadows even though he knew Anti wasn’t throwing any more knives.

“It’s just like before, Anti is focusing too much on his actions; he’s thinking too far into it. However, when it comes to you, Anti acts on instinct to protect you, thus getting him to act more naturally and less in his mind.” Dark responded.

Anti lifted his head up and glared at Dark as he walked past Anti and up the stairs.

“I’m going to write something down, give me a moment and I’ll be back.” Dark said as he disappeared up the stairs to Mark’s room.

Anti turned to look at the others and frowned.

“We have the cake.” He reminded.

“Oh yeah, we have cake.” Jack chuckled.

“You got cake?” Mark questioned.

“When Anti and I were at the store the first time.” Jack nodded. “Remember how we planned the cake prank last time Dark used me to help Anti with his abilities?”

“Yep, but if you want to do the cake prank, then you gotta go get the cake quickly before Dark comes back.”

Jack nodded and ran up the stairs, grabbing the cake from his room and running back to the table were Mark had put out to plates and forks. Anti was hovering over the table with a grin and held one of his knives.

Jack quickly took the plastic lid off of the cake and put it in the middle of the table where Anti cut two fairly large pieces of cake and put one on each of the plates.

“Oh, this looks really sugary.” Mark hummed.

“Diabetes in frosting form.” Jack nodded.

The two of them took a bite of the cake and smiled, Jack giggling as he chewed the fluffy dessert.

“It may be a golden ticket to cavities, but man does this taste good.” Mark grinned.

“Ya gotta make it look convincing.” Anti added.

“How are we not eating cake convincing enough?” Mark questioned.

Jack scooped up a clump of frosting on his fork and swiped it over Mark’s cheek.

“Oh.” Mark blinked, then gathered up his own frosting and smeared it on Jack’s lips.

“Hmm, are my lips not sweet enough for you?” Jack teased, painting Mark’s nose pink with frosting.

“I don’t know, why don’t I give it a taste test to check?” Mark smirked and leaned over.

Dark came down the stairs holding up a journal and was writing something in it when he looked up and saw Mark and Jack kissing while their faces were covered in frosting. He looked over at Anti who was sitting next to the cake and had his knife covered in the frosting as well.

Dark gave them all the most unamused face they’ve ever seen.

Mark noticed that Dark had come back and moved away from Jack, laughing with a notably pink tongue.

“What are you three doing?” Dark asked flatly.

“Breakfast? Lunch? Brunch?” Jack shrugged, taking a piece of cake from Mark’s plate and sticking it in his mouth.

“Having a sugary break.” Mark smiled, taking a bite from Jack’s cake.

Anti swiped his knife against the main cake and got a good amount of frosting on it before floating over to Dark.

“What’s wrong?” Anti asked playfully. “Not a sugary guy?” He brought the knife up and booped Dark’s nose with it, successfully making it pink.

Dark let out a heavy breath from his nose as he glared at Anti so much that it almost looked like his eyes were closed. He moved around Anti to the table and grabbed the plastic lid, placing it back over the main cake and putting it away in the kitchen.

Anti frowned a bit and floated over to the kitchen, watching as Dark put away the cake and turned back to face him. Anti almost thought he irked Dark too much when Dark walked over to him and looked displeased.

Dark then leaned over and touched noses with Anti, getting the frosting on him as well.

“You’re all the sugar I need.” Dark hummed softly, then walked over to grab two hand towels and tossed them over to Mark and Jack who were becoming pink frosting paintings.

[*Hey, Look, Picture*](https://galaxykittyda.deviantart.com/art/Dusks-and-Dawns-Ch-18-747268647)

“Clean up your mess after this.” Dark sighed and picked up his journal from the counter, moving over to the couch and started writing something else.

…

Anti and Jack had moved back to their bedroom, Anti encouraged to try to use his new skill again on the dartboards in the room. Dark was flipping through his journal, still on the couch, when Mark sat down next to him.

“How you doing?” Mark asked.

“Fine.”

Mark leaned over a bit and nudged Dark’s shoulder.

“Whatcha thinking?”

“I’m going through my notes on other spirits.”

Dark had a few little journals where he wrote down information that he’s gathered, some having the symbols for different associations and information on the members, other pages describing the different types of spirits he’s encountered along with the ones he’s heard about.

“You worried about the Mind Dawn?”

Dark stopped flipping through his journal.

“He’s a character whose intentions are unclear.” Dark stared slowly. “And he’s not someone I would prefer to have to come face to face with, but it seems that’s the direction we’re going towards.”

“Are Mind Dawns hard to deal with?”

“Well, we first have to consider the fact that he’s a Dawn, so he’s most likely going to stay towards the sun and have sources of light for himself, which would be the opposite of what I prefer. Then, all four of us would have to be weary of him because he uses Dawn energy which is _not_ compatible with Dusks.” Dark started to explain. “The same would apply to him, he would most likely be weary of us, but that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down.”

“I’ve seen you go up against other Dawns before, though, and you never had a problem with them.” Mark added.

“Yes, because I’ve had years of practice and experience; I could tell exactly what they were going to do before they even tried.” Dark sighed. “And their energy does not compare to mine; they would’ve needed a lot more force to try to even come close to being a real threat.”

“But this guy is different ‘cause he deals with mental stuff?”

“Yes.”

“And…”

“And?”

“And you’re worried about Anti ‘cause he doesn’t have the experience like you do.”

Dark sighed and set his journal down.

“…yes.”

“Aw, so you have a heart after all.” Mark smiled lightly.

“Sure.” Dark responded, knowing it was the easiest way to get Mark to stop.

“But he’s been getting better, you saw him this morning with the knives.” Mark reassured.

“I know, I’m hoping to finish his training before we encounter the Dawn. Because he’s a Glitch Dusk, he…”

Mark looked over expectantly at Dark, waiting for him to finish his train of thought.

“He… I’m relying on his abilities as a Glitch Dusk to beat the Dawn.” Dark admitted.

“You should tell him that.” Mark chuckled.

Dark huffed and picked up his journal once more.

“Why do you think that’s a good idea?” Dark questioned.

“Well, you were saying that he’s been improving his abilities when Jack is involved, but I think if he had some encouragement from a certain someone…” Mark smirked when Dark shot him a glance. “And if you told him how you believed in his abilities… it might give him some much needed motivation to practice.” Mark winked.

Dark didn’t respond.

“I think he’d want to impress you too.” Mark added. “If he knew.”

“I suppose.” And that was all Dark said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added another pic on DeviantArt and it's the scene where Anti is clinging onto Dark while Dark treats it like any other normal day (ch. 16). It's great.
> 
> It'll probably take up space between drawing pics and posting chapters but I think adding pics makes the story more fun.
> 
> Also, I got a comment asking about if Felix was going to be the Mind Dawn who we've heard about, and I thought it was an interesting idea, except the Mind Dawn is also the main villain of the story and, even though most of the story is me making stuff up as I go, I do have some of the interactions and fight scenes planned out and the Dawn, to put it simply, does not care about their well being XD  
> I do have ideas on how to make his actions more reasonable and to redeem him if he does end up being Felix, as currently the Dawn doesn't have any characteristics or even a name, but I wanted to see if anyone else thought it would be interesting for our antagonist to be Felix, sooooooooooo comment your thoughts please :3 it'd really help me out.
> 
> Art Link for this chapter: https://galaxykittyda.deviantart.com/art/Dusks-and-Dawns-Ch-18-747268647


	19. Midnight Practice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep forgetting Chica is a character.

A few days later, Anti was able to get the hang of his teleporting abilities, often showing off with his glitching knives and teleporting around the house. Dark noted that through training, Anti has been able to improve his energy usage as well. He had been keeping track on how much energy Anti held at one time, seeing how long Anti could use his abilities before he had to rest (though Dark also kept watch just to make sure Anti’s energy didn’t get too low for his well-being.)

Dark had thought about what Mark had said about telling Anti how he was counting on his abilities, but he didn’t want to just outright say it.

One day, Anti had ran up to him holding an open lock, saying that he was able to unlock it using his energy without the key, and Dark put his hand on Anti’s shoulder and smiled, saying that he was doing great. Anti beamed at that and hugged Dark.

Tonight, Dark had something planned, so when the sun lowered behind the horizon, casting the outside with shadows, Mark and Jack hopped in the car and drove to an almost private area in an open grassy field. When they got there, Mark and Jack walked out to the middle of the field, looking down to see the grass reaching below their knees. Dark and Anti joined them a few seconds later and the four of them stood together in the grassy clearing.

“So, what’s your plan?” Anti asked.

“Continuing on with your training, however, I thought a more open area would be nicer.” Dark answered. “Tonight, we’ll be working on using your natural energy.”

Mark and Jack decided to give them some room and sat down a few feet away together.

They watched as Dark held his hand out as shadowy energy formed in his hand, floating in the air before flowing around Dark’s form, reminding them of a water bender of some sort. They watched in awe as Dark manipulated his energy around himself, gliding around in the air almost beautifully, then it moved over to Anti and floated around him as well. Anti turned around in place, watching Dark’s energy and stepping backwards when it got closer.

Dark’s energy disappeared and he put his hands together, palms up, as another sphere of energy was created there. Anti copied his movements, putting his hands together as his own energy formed there.

Mark and Jack watched for a while, seeing Anti slowly imitate Dark, getting his energy to flow in the air around himself just as Dark had done earlier.

Eventually, Mark stood up and walked over to the car, coming back with acoustic guitar in hand.

“You brought your guitar?” Jack asked, smiling.

“Hey, it wouldn’t hurt to play a bit.” Mark sat back down next to him.

“Got a song in mind?”

“I’ve been practicing one, the chords are pretty simple, so I thought I’d give it a try.”

Mark set the guitar up on his lap and started playing the few chords, Jack instantly recognizing what song it was.

_“I've been awake for a while now._  
_You've got me feelin' like a child now._  
_'Cause every time I see your bubbly face._  
_I get the tingles in a silly place._  
_It starts in my toes, and I crinkle my nose._  
_Where ever it goes I always know._  
_That you make me smile, please, stay for a while now._  
_Just take your time wherever you go.”_

Jack leaned over to rest his head on Mark’s shoulder, swaying back and forth with him to the music and smiling. Mark started smiling too much and was having trouble singing the next verse, but they were both having a fun time. 

__

The song fit strangely to what they were doing, it was soft and gentle, and the grassy area gave off a relaxing vibe. Anti’s green flickering energy in the air reminded them of fireflies lighting up the sky, and it was oddly stunning.

Anti started hovering in the air and floated over to Dark, swerving around him with his energy following and poking him on the back. He started twirling around in the sky, visibly laughing while Dark’s energy loosely chased him.

As Mark was getting to the end of the song, Jack motioned to take over singing for him.

_“I've been asleep for a while now._  
_You tucked me in just like a child now._  
_'Cause every time you hold me in your arms._  
_I'm comfortable enough to feel your warmth._  
_It starts in my soul, and I lose all control._  
_When you kiss my nose, the feelin' shows._  
_'Cause you make me smile, baby, just take your time now._  
_Holdin' me tight.”_

They then sang the last part together.

_”Wherever, wherever, wherever you go._  
_Wherever, wherever, wherever you go._  
_Wherever you go I always know._  
_'Cause you make me smile, even just for a while.”_

Mark set the guitar down to the side to let Jack hug him and push him to the ground, laying half on top of him.

“Have I ever told you I love your voice?” Jack smiled.

“Maybe?”

“Well, I love your voice.” Jack restated and kissed his cheek.

“And when I kiss your nose, the feeling shows.” Mark referenced the lyrics and pecked Jack’s nose.

“’Cause you make me smile… all the time.” Jack added and leaned forward to give Mark a proper kiss on the lips.

A cold breeze blew past them, making both of them shiver.

“Ah, geez, it’s cold.” Jack pouted.

“Well, it _is_ the middle of the night where there’s no warm sunlight.” Mark hummed.

“C’mere, I need my heater.” Jack snuggled closer and tucked his head underneath Mark’s, trying to get as close as he could to Mark’s body warmth.

Mark wrapped his arms around Jack and laughed.

“What, do I not get a heater?”

“I’m lying on top of you, I’m your blanket.”

Another breeze of the chilling air hit the two of them, making them whine.

“Aww, make it stop.” Jack mumbled into Mark.

They felt the cold air abruptly stop and they lifted their heads to see a shadow was covering them lightly.

“…what?” Jack stared.

Mark started chuckling and brought Jack’s head back down to snuggle.

“It’s Dark.” Mark responded easily.

“How the heck did he know we’re cold?”

“You’re thinking of the same Dark I am right?” Mark teased. “He’s the overly cautious guy that literally puts up an energy field each night at the house to make sure no one sneaks up on us. He’s probably as protective as Anti is, he just doesn’t outwardly show it like that. I have no doubt that he’s keeping an eye on us here just to make sure we’re safe even though we’re the only ones here.”

Another cold breeze stirred the air, but the shadow kept the frigid temperatures from hitting them and they smiled.

“I still need my heater, though.” Jack smiled as he closed his eyes.

The two of them dozed off as Dark and Anti continued messing around with their energy. Dark set up another shadowy target, kind of like the ones he made back at the house, and directed Anti to hit it.

Dark lifted his hand up and surrounded it with his energy, walking over to the target and hitting it forcefully, Anti watching as Dark’s energy on his hand flared at the contact and the target bent backwards before reforming.

“You can use your energy to enhance your combat skills.” Dark nodded before moving to give Anti a turn.

Anti felt his energy surround his hand, covering it in a glowing iridescent green, and he slammed his fist into the shadowy target, causing the shadows to disperse where it took the impact. 

Dark nodded in approval, making Anti grin as he gave the shadow a few more experimental hits.

Dark then moved on to teaching Anti how to make a type of shield using energy, using his energy to make a dark cover in front of himself and told Anti to attack it. Anti tried to use his own energy to take down the shield, but it didn’t budge.

“You have to be careful when you use your energy as a shield to deflect attacks, though.” Dark warned. “Your shield will require you to use the same amount of energy as the attack that hit you is using, so the two will cancel each other out. If you run out of energy, you won’t be able to keep the shield up, and if you run into someone who has more energy that you, they could break the shield in one hit."

He taught Anti how to make the shield, then started hitting it with light attacks so he could get used to the feeling of deflecting hits. After he got the hang of that, Dark told him to stay still and keep the shield up.

“And now, I’ll show you what it would feel like if someone broke the shield.” Dark informed before summoning a shadow and matching the energy of Anti’s shield, adding a little more force before sending it rushing forwards as he collided with the shield.

The shield broke, causing Anti to stagger backwards and grab his head with one hand.

“Gah, that… that was not nice.” Anti mumbled as he rubbed his forehead, feeling lightheaded.

“Because you were forced to use a large amount of your energy at one time to deflect that attack.” Dark informed before walking over to Anti and wrapping his arms around him.

Anti felt Dark’s energy being transferred to him once more as the lightheadedness faded away.

It gave him an idea.

“Darky, would there be a way to use our energy together on the same shield?”

“Put your shield back up.” Dark nodded as he stepped away, though he still held one of Anti’s hands.

Anti used his other hand to recreate the shield, using the energy he regained from Dark, and watched as Dark raised another shadow in front of them, this one even more intimidating that the one before. Anti frowned a bit and turned to look at Dark who smiled reassuringly, and Anti nodded to show he was ready.

The shadow surged towards them, surprising Anti with its speed, and it crashed into the shield. This attack was significantly more powerful that the one before, causing Anti to be worried for a second, but he suddenly felt the rush of Dark’s energy travel through him from their linked hands, adding force to the shield and protecting them.

The shadowy attack died out, leaving the shield in place, looking just as strong as it was before. Anti turned to Dark as he made the shield fade away, looking surprised.

“I told you-” Dark smirked. “-that spirits with a connection can use their energy together.”

“Wait… so if I could do that…” Anti started thinking about all the other stuff he could do with Dark’s help.

He looked up at Dark with a huge grin, reminding him of an excited kitten, practically vibrating with excitement.

“My energy is yours to use.” Dark smiled softly, and Anti jumped up to hug him, wrapping his legs around Dark’s waist.

“That Mind Dawn’s not gonna stand a chance against us.” Anti snickered.

“Don’t get overconfident.” Dark sighed, but smiled anyway.

Dark decided they had enough practice today and carried Anti over to where their humans were sleeping. He used the help of his shadows to carry them all over to the car, placing them in the backseat together while he got the keys from Mark and sat in the driver’s side.

“You know how to drive?” Anti questioned.

“Although I haven’t done any of that practice or taken the test, I’ve learned from when Mark has done it.”

He drove with ease, not running into much traffic as it was late now, and got everyone home where Chica was waiting with her tail wagging energetically.

She followed them as Dark and Anti brought the two uselessly sleeping humans up to Mark’s room, setting them underneath the covers right away since they were already wearing pajama-worthy clothes.

Anti played with Chica a little bit, giving her pets and belly rubs, before he directed her to lay down in her own little bed in the room.

Dark walked over to give Anti a soft kiss before disappearing back to Mark’s mindscape.

Anti lingered a bit, watching the two humans and their fluffy doggo sleeping, before chuckling softly and disappearing to the mindscape as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone please give me a name for Felix's Dawn please! I don't know anything about him, so I can't think of a name for my life! Pleaaseee! Ya'll voted for him to be the Mind Dawn so do me one more favor and name the guy!  
> The first thing that came to mind was, for some unknown reason, Freelix and that sounds like "free licks" so NO!  
> Seriously, I'm sure anyone else can do better than me at this, my creativity is being all used up just by writing these chapters o-o
> 
> Also, since you all seemed to think the "you're all the sugar I need" was cute, I added that to my deviantart ;3 you should go check it out, link is in that chapter.  
> Yes, I do read every comment and I'm hurting myself from smiling so much at them, I realized I didn't respond to any of them last chapter but seriously, you guys are making my heart figuratively die with all of your support ^^


	20. Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter that makes this story rated M

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***GUYS, THIS CHAPTER IS A MATURE ONE, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ DANTI SEXY TIMES THEN ONLY READ THE FIRST LITTLE BIT AND I'LL GIVE YOU A WARNING WHEN TO STOP READING***
> 
> I don't want to see comments complaining about this when I am warning you here and in the chapter itself; it's rated M for a reason.

With Dark’s help, Anti was able to further improve his abilities, and Dark was finally starting to consider whether or not they were now strong enough to confront the Mind Dawn. He knew that they were going to ask Fate about it later, once Dark deemed them ready, to get more information from her and, as reluctant as Dark was to do this, ask for her assistance. He knew that she didn’t like the Dawn causing trouble in L.A. any more than he did, and since she already had sent people after him, he knew she’s willing to try again with proper planning this time.

With Dark’s influence, he knew he would be able to convince Fate to join them. With two powerful spirits, a Dimension and Shadow Dusk, as well as a Glitch Dusk who will, hopefully, be able to use his powers to the fullest, along with anyone from Fate’s association that joins them, their group should be strong enough to combat the Dawn’s swarm of spirits.

The group of Dusks causing terror at night hasn’t let up in the slightest, though, so Dark wanted to be able to move with his plan as soon as possible. The sooner they could stop this, the better.

 

Anti has been proud of his accomplishments during his training, and he was finally grasping the concept of being a Glitch Dusk. Dark had started to do one on one combat with him, training him to fight, and although Anti could tell Dark has been holding back and only using a fraction of his abilities, Anti was able to catch him off guard once in a while. He used his glitching abilities to turn the tides and go against the rules, confusing Dark more than once and getting close enough to tag him. He was learning to love his glitching knife abilities, as Dark would put up shadows between them to block his attacks and he would throw a knife that would flicker out of existence only to appear on the other side of the shadow and almost succeed at hitting Dark.

Dark told him his unpredictability with his glitching ability is what he should rely on, as it would make Anti the only person who knew what he would do. Other spirits, Dark explained, focus a lot on what type of spirit their opponent is and strategize around their weaknesses and the nature of their abilities, but Anti is the one type of spirit that doesn’t follow a pattern.

So yeah, Anti was pretty happy with his improvements.

…

It was a quiet night, already past midnight and Mark and Jack were sleeping cuddled up together in Mark’s room. Mark’s room was slowly turning into the humans’ room while Jack’s room was turning into the spirits’ room, but none of them minded too much.

Anti was laying on the floor, legs propped up and crossed over on another as he looked up at the ceiling and daydreamed. Dark was sitting up against the wall next to him, one hand interlaced with Anti’s hand while the other was holding up another book, reading through it silently.

The two have gotten closer through their training, sharing energy often and becoming inseparable whenever they were out of the mindscape. Anti was thinking about the different things they could do with their abilities together and remembered something that Dark had told him a long while ago when they first talked about connections.

_-“My abilities don’t work if I’m in the light and there are no shadows in the first place. However, since you are a Glitch Dusk, if we have a strong enough connection, you could essentially surpass those restrictions I have and allow me to work beyond them.”-_

Anti tilted his head to look over at Dark who was reading contently, and sat up, letting go of Dark’s hand to walk over to the small lamp they had on a table. He turned on the little light, training it towards the floor to create a small ring of light on the carpet. Dark looked up from his reading, giving Anti a curious look and set his book down.

Anti walked back over to Dark, wanting to be close for this, and moved Dark’s legs so he could sit between them with his back against Dark’s chest. Dark naturally wrapped his arms around Anti’s middle and brushed their cheeks together.

“What’s on your mind?” He finally asked when Anti continued to stare at the small area of light.

Anti had thought about everything Dark had done for him; saving him more than once, sharing his energy, teaching him about the worlds of spirits, and helping him get his abilities under control. The way Dark described their connection and how it could help Dark lingered in his mind; Anti wanted to do this for Dark.

“You said your shadows don’t work in the light…” Anti mumbled.

Dark looked over at the lamp and began to realize what Anti was doing.

Anti lifted Dark’s right hand in his, bringing Dark’s hand to stretch out in front of them while he placed the palm of his hand on the back of Dark’s. Their fingers brushed side by side lightly as Dark watched wordlessly.

Dark summoned a small shadow, slowly circling the ring of light, not trying to get any closer, and Anti took in a deep breath. He closed his eyes and focused on his glitch ability, channeling its strange energy, and concentrated on joining it with Dark’s energy, trained to their hands. He opened his eyes and watched as Dark carefully moved the shadow closer to the light until it finally entered the glowing ring.

As soon as it happened, Anti could feel his energy buzzing, tingling the most at his right hand, and felt his body grow tense. More of the shadow went into the light, lifting off the ground and swirling around in the small area, and Anti found it increasingly harder to breathe evenly. He felt himself wince, muscles straining as the buzzing turned into an unpleasant prickling until he couldn’t handle it any longer and released his hold on his energy with a grunt.

The shadow quickly broke apart under the light, no longer supported from Anti, and the room returned to normal. Anti was breathing heavily and was staring down at the floor, but was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Dark chuckling behind him. He turned his head to see Dark smiling, an honest smile, and titled his head in confusion.

“It… it didn’t work though.” Anti frowned.

“Didn’t work? Did you not see it?” Dark bumped their noses together.

“But I couldn’t keep it, it barely lasted a few seconds.” 

“Anti, you just _broke_ the rules of shadows, it may have only been a few seconds, but you _did_ do it.”

“But it’s not enough… why didn’t it work?” Anti looked dejected.

“Don’t be so upset, you’re trying to do something that requires a truly powerful connection.” Dark cupped his cheeks lightly.

“I thought we did have a connection… that we do have one.”

Anti turned in Dark’s lap so he could properly face him and threaded his fingers through the black strands. He rested their foreheads together, becoming a familiar symbol for the two of them, as the two closed their eyes, nothing to hear but their gentle breaths and crickets in the night.

“I… I want our connection to be _real_ , to no longer carry restrictions. Our energy works so well together, but I can still feel something like a wall between us, keeping us apart. Dark…” Anti’s fingers tightened in Dark’s hair. “I don’t… want to feel so distant…”

Anti closed the short distance to kiss Dark, lips moving slowly, asking a silent question to go further.

“Are you certain?” Dark asked, rubbing Anti’s cheeks softly.

“I don’t want to be with anyone other than you.”

They brought their lips together once more, Anti sliding his tongue into Dark’s mouth who hummed at the feeling.

*****mature warning from here on out, if you don't want to read it then STOP reading now*****

Dark used his shadows and brought Anti over to the bed, laying him gently on the cushion before slipping his jacket and tie off. They laid close to one another, placing chaste kisses against their lips as they slowly went to discard their other clothes.

Once Dark slipped Anti’s shirt off, Anti flipped them so Dark’s back was to the bed and slowly started unbuttoning his dress shirt, placing openmouthed kisses against his stomach and chest as he moved higher with each button. Anti rubbed his hands up against Dark’s now bare chest and over his shoulders, moving the shirt off and throwing it to the side.

They didn’t speak words, communicating through delicate touches and heavy breaths, kissing along the exposed skin of the other. Anti ran his hands all along Dark’s chest, feeling it rise and fall with each breath until he moved his hands up to his arms, feeling the muscles as he brought Dark’s hands above his head.

Anti brought his mouth down to Dark’s neck, biting the skin until the color changed and soothing the marks with his tongue, smiling at the soft sounds he could hear from Dark’s throat.

Dark turned their positions once more, looking into Anti’s mismatched eyes with an emotion he couldn’t name, and leaned down to capture his lips, soft and glossy from kissing. The older spirit brought his hands down to Anti’s chest as their lips parted to move to the scar, licking along the red line as he began to pass his energy to Anti.

The glitch spirit’s back arched slightly off the bed as Dark did so, the energy suddenly feeling so much _more_. He could feel the warm flow of it under his skin, humming with emotion; affection but not quite, because it was more. Just like before, the way Dark’s energy coursed through him freely felt pleasant, and with their situation, the feeling only grew. Anti couldn’t hold back the blissful closed-lip moans as Dark moved his hands around his chest, across his arms, thumbs rubbing his throat before gliding down his sides, spreading his energy with each touch until his whole body buzzed with warmth.

Dark’s firm hold grounded him as the spirit’s hands slowly rubbed against his abs and up to his pecs, repeating the movement as he felt something mess with the button of his jeans. Anti lifted his head and looked down to see that Dark’s shadows were unbuttoning his along with Dark’s pants, watching them both get pulled down and thrown to the side.

Anti’s mind ran through different scenarios that they could do with Dark’s shadows and whined, but then thought those could wait for another time. Anti always thought their first time would be fast paced and rough, given Anti’s chaotic nature and Dark’s strength, but he actually was preferring this slower rhythm. It felt symbolic, as the two of them were becoming close for their connection, taking the time to understand and appreciate the other’s presence.

Soon, the two of them were left lying in nothing but their underwear, and Anti hooked a leg over Dark’s hip to press him closer, pushing his own hips up and seeking friction, which Dark readily provided.

Dark didn’t let up with his energy, and Anti was beginning to wonder if he would even be able to find his own energy with how Dark’s seemed to surround him. He was going to come undone before anything even happened and he shut his eyes to try to calm himself, breath coming out in short pants as Dark kissed along his neck.

“Feels good?” Dark murmured, though it didn’t really sound like a question.

Anti responded by letting go of his tight grip on the sheets below to grab onto Dark’s face and pull him forward for another wet kiss, groaning with the sparks of energy flickering through their lips touching.

Dark leaned back and smiled softly, pecking his lips once more before kissing down his cheek and nipping his ear, continuing to roll his hips down roughly against Anti.

“I can make it feel better…” Dark continued. “ _So much better._ ”

Dark emphasized his words as another pulse of energy left from his hands on Anti’s chest, causing Anti to gasp loudly and he really didn’t think he would be able to handle something more, if it wasn’t obvious to Dark already as their clothed members pressed against one another.

“Yes, _god_ , do it.” Anti panted and he felt Dark slipping his fingers underneath the band of his last piece of clothing before sliding it down and throwing it to join the rest of the mess on the floor.

Anti spread his legs more as he felt Dark run a hand down his right thigh, looking down to see Dark staring back at him with pupils wide but full of that unnamed emotion. He felt Dark’s hand trail slowly towards his entrance, circling it with a finger for a few seconds before he felt it press inside, but feeling oddly cold and soft, almost feathery.

Anti looks down again and saw the soft flickering of shadows around Dark’s hand and realized he was using them as a substitute for lubrication, gentle enough that the stretching didn’t sting with each movement.

Dark continued to lick along Anti’s scar, still as sensitive to affection as always, as he added another finger, making gentle scissoring movements with the help of the shadows.

It wasn’t until Dark added a third finger that he spoke again.

“It’ll be… different.” Dark murmured against Anti’s skin.

“D-different?” Anti huffed.

“Intense.” Dark clarified.

Anti tried to let out a chuckle, turning into a groan half way, but smirked none the less.

“You’re soundin’ a lot like you’re tryin’… tryin’ to talk yourself up.” Anti teased.

“Our form _is_ energy… and it feels good when I do this.” Dark sent another pulse of his energy through Anti’s skin with his free hand, causing Anti to mewl and turn his head to the side.

“But soon it’ll be more.” Dark hummed.

Anti felt the shadows along with Dark’s fingers move around more, but he was beginning to grow impatient and was eager to feel what Dark has been foreshadowing.

“Dark, please, just-“ He mewled again when Dark’s fingers brushed along the sensitive spot inside of him.

Dark smirked against the scar and finally pulled his fingers out, giving the scar one last kiss before moving away to see Anti’s face clearly, blushing with anticipation. He summoned another shadow to cover Anti’s mouth, wrapping around his jaw and Anti gave him a confused look.

Dark leaned down and touched their noses, seeing as Anti’s mouth was covered preventing him from giving a kiss instead, and smiled.

“As much as I wanna hear you…” Dark murmured. “We can’t risk waking up the others.”

Anti continued to give him a confused look, eyebrow raised, and was about to try to speak through the mask-like shadow until he felt Dark put a hand under each of his thighs, moving the one leg still hooked over Dark’s waist higher towards his chest while moving the other leg further apart. Anti felt something nudge his entrance as Dark’s lips moved over to brush his ear, noting that he never noticed when Dark took off his last article of clothing as well.

“But… I still wanna hear you try.” Dark hummed.

And that was all the warning Anti had before he felt Dark thrust fully inside of him and he violently threw his head back against the pillow and screamed, voice dulled to a muffle from the mask, as he felt a wave of Dark’s energy crash through him when Dark pressed inside. It was _so_ much more intense than what Dark’s energy felt like with his hands, and _god_ it felt good, so so good. Dark’s energy before was like a ripple in a pond, but this was like he was being hit with the ocean and it was almost unbearable but he didn’t want to stop, god no, he wanted _more_.

Dark was fully seated inside of him and was looking down, waiting for Anti to adjust before doing anything more, and smiling a little smugly at Anti’s reaction.

Anti wanted to slap that grin off Dark’s face, but decided that could wait until after, and brought his hands up to wrap around Dark’s back, nails scratching at him as he pulled him impossibly closer and hooked his chin over Dark’s shoulder. He felt Dark turn his head to place a delicate kiss against his ear before drawing his hips back slowly only to push back in roughly as Anti moaned loudly. He clawed at Dark’s back when the second wave of pleasure rolled through him and he would’ve arched his back off the bed if Dark wasn’t laying over him.

Dark set a calm rhythm at first, thrusting into him slowly and Anti could do nothing but take it, pressing back to meet Dark’s hips in an attempt to point out that he wanted more. He eventually rested his head back against the pillows again, still clinging closely, and he could see Dark’s face slowly loosing focus with each movement.

Anti let out a whine through the shadow and gave Dark a pleading look, finally getting him to quicken his movements until the two of them were rocking back into the bed heavily. Anti was being pressed down onto the mattress as he was pushed back with each thrust and he wouldn’t be surprised if Dark was using other shadows to hold the bed down so it wouldn’t bang loudly against the wall.

Dark’s movement was beginning to waver as they continued their forceful pace, and Anti could feel the corner of his eyes stinging with unshed tears, body being lavished with energy. He thought he would be able to last longer, but he felt Dark’s hands slide underneath his back and grab onto his shoulders, then felt something wrap around his legs and push them up closer to his chest, realizing shadows were spreading his legs, and Dark suddenly slammed into him with another sensual wave of energy; Anti couldn’t hold it and came between the two of them with a muffled wail.

He felt Dark slow down and remove the shadow mask, looking at him with eyes blown wide but silently asking what’s next. With his mouth now free, Anti grabbed Dark’s cheeks and pulled him down for a tongue filled kiss, tasting everything he could reach before pulling back for air.

“Don’t stop… keep going.” Anti said with half lidded eyes, and Dark returned the kiss before changing their positions so Dark was resting on the back of the headboard and Anti sat on his lap, arms around his shoulders.

Anti realized Dark was letting him lead from here and positioned himself better to start rolling his hips down, using Dark’s shoulders to hold himself up as he moved. He felt Dark grab onto his hips and bucked up into him, matching his pace, and rested his head back against the headboard.

Anti felt himself smile a little after seeing Dark look this disheveled, knowing that he was the one that Dark let his guard down for and he was the one who was making Dark lose his composure. 

He was already sensitive and he could tell Dark was close himself, so Anti leaned forward to lick back into Dark’s mouth as he gave the final few pushes leading to both of their releases, moans muffled this time through the kiss.

As the two of them were calming down from their… session… Dark pushed back against the headboard to lay flat against the bed, still inside Anti who was now laying on top of him.

Anti could feel both of their breaths slowing down, and their intimate moment was turning to a comfortable one as he closed his eyes and snuggled up to Dark, smiling.

“Mmm… nap time.” Anti murmured.

“Anti, I don’t think this is a comfortable position…” Dark hummed, rolling his hips a little as emphasis as Anti moaned softly at the movement.

“This is a very comfortable position.” Anti countered, fingers brushing along Dark’s chest.

Dark kissed his forehead, but rolled Anti over and slipped out of him, using a shadow to grab a rag from the connected bathroom and turn on the sink, getting it wet before bringing it back over to the two of them and using it to clean them off.

“Think that made the connection better?” Anti teased after they were cleaned up, calling back to the first time they kissed.

Dark chuckled lightly before bringing Anti closer to him in his arms, chest to back, throwing off the dirtied blanket to use the clean one underneath. The two of them were facing the little lamp and stared at the light for a moment before Dark grabbed Anti’s right hand in his and brought it straight forward to the light, imitating what Anti had done before.

“Don’t think…” Dark hummed. “Just feel.” 

They watched as another shadow rose from the ground and circled the light, and once Dark felt Anti’s energy thrumming with his hand, he directed the shadow into the light. He could feel that Anti wasn’t as tense as before as the shadow danced under the light, unfazed by the fact that it is defying logic by existing in the brightness. Anti huffed when Dark started showing off a bit, making the shadows do odd things under the light, until he made another one flick the lamp off. The two of them dropped their arms, Dark keeping it over Anti, and he kissed the back of Anti’s neck.

“I love you.”

Dark finally gave recognition to the unnamed emotion.

And Anti turned around in his arms, tears threatening to return as he gave Dark the softest kiss of the night.

“I love you.” Anti hummed, almost arguing as though he was trying to convince Dark it was the other way around.

Dark held him closely as Anti drifted off to sleep, then looked to the door and moved a shadow up to lock the door.

They didn’t need Jack waking up early to see this.

Just as he thought Anti had fully fallen asleep, he heard Anti mumbled against his skin.

"I am _so_ going to be the one doing this to you next time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...  
> This was the first time I wrote mature stuff so...  
> Excuse me while I go be embarrassed and hide in the closet.
> 
> And guys, please, I gave you warnings, please don't complain about it if you don't like it, you're going to make me feel bad and hide in the closet for like a month, be nice to my poor soul ;;


	21. Get a Group

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm tired.
> 
> And sorry not sorry but there's so much fluff here, I know they're evil alteregos without feelings but FLUFF IS FLUFFY AND ADORABLE, and this is my story and I think fluff is very fitting.  
> There is no such thing as saying "I love you" too many times!
> 
>  
> 
> You'll be happy about this fluff when you realize how not fluffy a certain other scene is in the future.

Anti woke up, laying on a naked chest that was breathing slowly, and was cuddling it extremely. Anti let out a relaxing breath as he smiled, stretching a tiny bit before he realized that the breathing was a lot more subtle than normal. He lifted his head off of Dark’s chest ever so slightly to look up at his face and gave it a few seconds before understanding.

Dark… for the first time that Anti has ever seen… was asleep.

Dark was asleep.

Anti had a sudden urge to draw on his face.

Dark was asleep.

Then his voice echoed in the back of Anti’s mind, remembering what he had said last night.

_-“I love you.”-_

Dark was asleep.

And Anti felt something flutter inside of him when he realized how much Dark was doing and would _only_ do with him. 

_-“I love you.”-_ The memory said again as Anti rested his head back down against Dark’s chest.

When Anti was first awoken to Jack, he never considered relationships or anything of that nature. He was interested in getting to know who his human was and knowing the world that was Earth, and all the weird stuff there was. After a week, he saw movies with lovers and saw Jack play games with couples, and saw how the characters would interact and risk their lives for one another.

It didn’t matter too much, and Anti had Jack, and he would take care of Jack while the other would keep him company. They were good.

Another week passed and Anti started feeling lonely, but he would remind himself that he was just a spirit, and it would almost be impossible for him to get together with someone.

Another week, and Anti realized that he would have to watch as Jack found someone and got married. Anti didn’t want to keep Jack from finding someone who would make him happy… but it only made Anti feel even more hopeless.

Another week, Anti was getting better at doing spirit stuff and was able to pick up on Jack’s emotions rather than just his thoughts.

He didn’t know too much about Mark but apparently Jack thought about him a lot and had positive emotions towards him.

However later it was, Anti and Jack were getting increasingly distressed from the Dusks around their area.

Eventually Jack texted Mark and they moved.

And then Anti met Dark.

And got pretty upset that Dark was so much better at protecting the humans than he was and “threw a fit” according to what Jack explains moments like that as.

Dark seemed to put up with him, though.

And saved him twice.

And somehow understood what was going on in his mind without explaining anything and comforted him until those nasty thoughts went away.

And Dark was warm.

His energy gave off the feeling of safety.

He started teaching Anti about the spirit world and how to focus his abilities without needing to ask.

He never once seemed to be bothered by Anti’s sharper ears, mismatched eyes, ominous red scar, oddly laced voice, chaotic playfulness, or his lack of experience in this world, showing him to be naive.

Somehow, they came to trust each other.

And they said the words Anti thought he would never hear from someone and never speak himself.

_I love you_

Anti grinned as he started kissing along Dark’s neck, not hesitating to leave marks along the skin as he felt Dark slowly awaken.

He heard Dark grumble as he started waking up, and Anti snickered a bit when it took Dark more time than what would be normal, looking groggy. Anti guessed it was probably because Dark hadn’t fallen asleep in a long time and it caused him to have a harder time coming out of it.

When Dark was finally awake enough to understand his surroundings, Anti moved up to lick underneath his jaw and smile.

“I love you.” Anti said softly, finding a spark of happiness from saying those words.

Dark wrapped an arm around him to pull him closer, and Anti licked along his jaw until he got to the back of it and nipped his ear.

“I love you.” He said again, tugging on the ear lightly between his teeth before using a hand to grab the other side of Dark’s face and turn it towards him.

“I love you.” He said again, a glimmer of wonder in his eyes as he kissed against lips, turning it into a lazy make out session, feeling Dark comb fingers through the small fluff of green hair he had.

After a long time of passionate kisses, Dark leaned back enough to speak, lips brushing lips.

“I love you more.”

Anti scoffed and hit their foreheads together.

“Don’t even start that.” Anti frowned, but there was playfulness to his voice.

They kissed some more until Anti retreated back to hide his face in the crook of Dark’s neck.

“You know, I used to wonder what it would be like to be human.” Anti mumbled. “But after last night, damn am I glad to be a Dusk.”

Dark chuckled and rested his head on top of Anti’s.

“Does energy always feel like that?” Anti questioned.

“No, it’s unique per person.” Dark answered.

“So…” Anti moved a hand across Dark’s chest, curious, and focused on using his energy to feel nice… “This is different?”

“Mhmm…” Dark hummed.

Anti imitated what Dark had done before, running his hand across the skin he could reach while spreading his energy around pleasantly.

“What’s it feel like?” Anti murmured against Dark’s neck.

“Mmm…”

Anti leaned back to see Dark’s face again, noticing that his pupils were wider and he looked a bit dozy.

“Catnip.” Dark only said that word as he blinked slowly.

Anti took a second to process what Dark meant before snickering a bit and nosing back under his chin.

“I thought I was the cat, though.” Anti grinned.

“You are.” Dark hummed. “And you’re also my catnip.”

Anti had a little fun messing with Dark who was still drowsy from sleeping after a long time and now apparently dazed from “catnip”.

Dark eventually cleared his mind and got out of it, much do Anti’s dismay, and went downstairs to make breakfast. Anti decided to go check on the humans, only to float back downstairs with a wicked grin on his face.

“Looks like we weren’t the only ones havin’ a little fun.” Anti stuck his tongue out to the side.

Dark paused for a bit before grabbing something else from the cupboard.

“I suppose I’ll make something with more… energy.” Dark huffed, small smile on his face.

Anti let out a higher pitched laugh as he floated over to the kitchen to help… a little… mostly just to watch and throw knives.

When Mark and Jack eventually came down the stairs, Anti was laying stomach down on the counter with his elbows propped up to hold his face, smirking as he watched the two of them sit at the table. They both started blushing when they realized Anti knew what happened and turned to stare at the table, trying to ignore Anti’s gaze.

Dark placed down the plates of breakfast in front of the two humans before moving Anti off of the counter to clean up.

“We’re going to talk to Fate today.” Dark stated casually, causing the other three to look up at him.

“What for?” Jack asked.

“Additional information on the Dawn.” Dark responded. “And possibly assistance.”

“Assistance? I thought you didn’t like her.” Mark titled his head.

“As much as I don’t like her, it would be better to have numbers on our side. We know the Dawn has a group of people working with him, but Fate’s association is also a powerful one. They should be able to handle the Dawn’s group while we take on the Dawn himself.”

“How do you know Fate will agree to it?” Anti asked.

Dark sighed as he washed a pan in the sink.

“This wouldn’t be the first time Fate and I have worked together.” Dark started. “And I’m sure you probably noticed how she likes to… be close with others. It won’t take much to convince her to join us for this.”

Anti floated over to Dark and wrapped his arms around Dark’s neck.

“You better remember I’m the only one who can get close to you, Darky.” Anti hummed.

“Same for you… kitten.” Dark smirked.

…

It was a little after noon when Dark decided that they should head over to the main building of Fate’s association, Overcast, to speak with her. Dark made them dress nicely, wearing neat button-down shirts and complimentary pants. When Jack was fixing his hair in the bathroom mirror, Anti floated up behind him and started fluffing up his hair, messing it up.

“Anti, I’m trying to look nice.” Jack pouted.

“Then do it like this.” Anti grabbed a small brush and ran it through Jack’s hair, occasionally putting his hand through the strands to move it to a specific place.

Jack looked better.

“We got the same hair.” Anti winked before gliding away to join the others down stairs.

The two spirits returned to their respective mindscapes as Mark drove the two of them to Fate’s association with directions from Dark. They arrived at a fairly nice multiple story building in a more secluded part of town, and Mark parked the car across the building in the parking lot there.

Mark and Jack tentatively walked to the front doors, reminding Jack of the over-the-top restaurant he went to with Fate, and understood why Dark wanted them to dress nicely. Fate’s association really did seem to be an elite one.

As soon as they entered the building, they were greeted by four intimidating men, one of which was holding a trident. Funny choice for a weapon, but spooky none the less.

“What brings you here?” One of the men, a redhead, asked.

_Tell them I’m here to talk with Fate._ Dark informed.

“We’re here with Dark to talk with Fate.” Mark said and watched as the four men eyed the two of them before moving away to let them pass.

Mark didn’t know if they recognized Dark’s name, or recognized his face looking like Dark, or let them pass because they’re here to see their leader, but if it worked, it worked. It wasn’t Dark’s first time being here, so he led the two of them to were Fate’s room would be, which was surprisingly not the top floor, as they rode the elevator up.

When they stepped out, they saw Angeline dancing with a group of other members, their spirits all hanging out to the side while one of them was sitting on the chandelier above. There was music playing and a faint pink light making the room glow. It didn’t seem like a party or anything big, just a bunch of friends hanging out, but Mark and Jack felt weird by intruding.

A few of the spirits noticed them first, leaning over to mention it to Fate, and when she saw them, she brightened up and quickly walked over to them.

“Why, if it isn’t Mark and Jack! What can I do for you two sweethearts?” She smiled.

“We’re here to talk with you about…”

_The Mind Dawn._

“-the Mind Dawn.” Mark nodded.

Fate pursed her lips a bit and looked back at the others dancing. She seemed to think for a bit before sighing and telling them to go up to the next floor and she’ll meet them there.

Mark and Jack did as they were told, finding themselves in a nice modern-like living room area with very nice looking coffee colored couches. They sat down on one of the couches together, talking a bit to pass the time, and eventually Dark decided to leave the mindscape, Anti following soon after, and the four of them waited, though Dark stayed standing. They all looked relatively nice, except for Anti, who was sitting on the couch upside-down, legs against the back of the couch while his head was almost touching the carpeted flooring.

They turned their heads when they heard the elevator doors open up, revealing Angeline and Fate, who walked over to greet the others.

“Let me guess.” Fate started. “You want more information on the guy.”

“That is part of it, yes.” Dark nodded.

Angeline left to go make tea in the adjacent room as Fate sat down on another couch, crossing her legs over one another and not looking concerned at all by her sudden visitors.

“He’s a Mind Dawn, still don’t have a name on him yet, still using Dusks to cause havoc at night, has other Dusks and Dawns with him working on something, I don’t know where his main building is, but a big building of operations where we found him the first time is at the edge of town by storage facilities and that one forest research department that no one ever goes to.” Fate huffed.

“That’s all?”

“Nothing else I can tell you would really be of use. I mean, the guy wears a white outfit, has a mask around his face to hide his features, made it impossible for the people I sent to try to identify him based on his appearance. The building is tall, but only one story…” Fate shrugged.

Angeline came back and placed two cups of tea on the table in front of Mark and Jack, holding a cup for herself as well as she sat down on the couch with Fate.

“Are you guys planning on going after him or something?” Angeline questioned.

“Yes, and that is also part of the other reason why we are here. We would like for your assistance in confronting his group.” Dark answered.

Angeline seemed surprised at that and Fate just pursed her lips more.

“Dark, hun, you know I’d usually like to help you out and all, but…” Fate stopped to think about her answer. “Overcast isn’t exactly… keen to the idea of facing him again.” She let out a sigh as she thought some more. “I have to think about my association’s well-being in this too.”

“If this Dawn gets farther with his actions, Overcast as well as every other spirit here might not be safe anymore. It would be in all of our best interests to get rid of the problem now before it escalates.” Dark informed.

Fate crossed her arms over her chest, fingers drumming against her upper left arm, as she thought about it more.

“Well… since I know of your… reputation, I’d feel a little better knowing you’d be there…” She looked over at Anti. “But I would at least like to know what type of Dusk he is.” She tilted her head sideways, motioning to the fact that Anti’s face was upside-down from his position.

“He is a Glitch Dusk.” Dark said plainly, watching as Fate stopped moving her fingers and stared at Anti with a mixture of confusion and curiosity.

She then looked over at Dark, raising an eyebrow, and Dark nodded.

“Alright, you’ll have to give me some time to get a group together; you can’t expect everyone to join up, but I know of a few who would be willing to help.”

Dark nodded, showing a simple amount of appreciation before heading towards the elevator and gesturing for the others to follow after quickly finishing their tea.

Before they all stepped inside, Fate called back to them.

“And Dark…” She sighed, but look at him and smiled, sad, but also a hint of determination. “Let’s do better this time, alright?”

Dark just simply nodded again before the four of them entered the elevator to go down, the spirits soon returning to the mindscape as well.

…

When they got home, Dark and Anti were back in their spirit forms, gathered around in the living room.

“Dark… what did she mean when she said that last thing?” Jack asked.

“It’s not a story that you’d need to hear.” Dark hummed.

Jack thought back to when he met with Fate at the restaurant and how a certain line she said had puzzled him, causing him to remember it.

_-“You remind me of an old friend of mine… and I can do for you what I couldn’t do for him.”-_

“This is not the first time we’ve worked together on a mission.” Dark added. “And we had another partner who would join us. The last mission we were on was risky, but we decided to go through with it. Then, unexpected events occurred… we weren’t prepared for what happened… caught us off-guard expect for our other partner… and he did something utterly reckless, but bought Fate and I enough time to complete our mission and escape…” Dark looked to the side and huffed. “We didn’t hear from him since then, and the news later found his human dead not long after.”

It was clear that Dark was not going to add anything else to the story, so the others didn’t ask anything else about it. Jack knew from what they taught about Dusks and Dawns in school that if the human dies, the spirit dies with them. He looked over at Anti and noticed that he had a serious but resolute expression. Jack could guess that Anti was preparing himself to train even harder for their upcoming battle, as they all knew confronting the Dawn was going to include fighting. He thought he would feel more nervous about the fact that he was preparing for conflict, but somehow, knowing that he wasn’t going in alone, it made Jack feel more confident about it.

“You know…” Mark hummed as he leaned over to Jack. “I still say I beat you at that one Mark Kart game.”

Jack looked over at him in confusion before grinning back.

“Oh really? Well how about we have a rematch right here and I’ll show you who’s boss!”

Mark was really good at lightening the mood.

“Oh, it’s on.” Mark grinned back, standing up to grab the controllers and turn on the game console and tv before sitting back down on the couch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun lil' bit of info, Overcast was the original name for Dark/Anti's group, and an overcast is like those group of grey clouds that blocks out the sky and it looks a lil spooky, but I liked Nightfall more and chose that instead.
> 
> I love comments, they inspire me to keep writing this story, but we're getting closer to the end now. What's planned is for Dark/Anti/Fate and company to go to the Dawn's building, find out where is main building is, do some stuff there which I ain't spoiling and it is the not-so-fluffy-you-all-wish-it-was-back-to-this-type-of-fluff part, but wow am I excited to get to that part! I totally didn't cry at all while planning it! (I cried; what does it mean when you cry at your own story???) It's so beautiful though ;; and sad, but beautiful, but heartbreaking, but also beautiful, and I can't say anything more specific without spoiling it.


	22. Confronting the Mind Dawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter... and
> 
> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

It was another week before the group decided it was time to make their move. Fate had assembled a group of Dusks and Dawns combined that she had prepared for this, saying that their abilities should prove to be useful. She managed to convince one of the members she had sent before to return for this second invasion and he explained the building layout while Dark, Anti, Fate, and the others were waiting to move out in the night.

“It is a one-story building, but it’s going to look rather large. I’m pretty sure this building is just where they have a bulk of supplies and group together. There’s a room in the back full of computers and monitors; I’m guessing it’s also going to have information on where the main base would be and where the Dawn leader is most likely going to be found.” The Dawn member, a younger light brunette male they called Mic, explained. “Last time we were here, we caught them off guard, but the entire building is lit up like a Christmas tree on steroids. You can break the lights on the ceiling all you want, but the whole room is like one giant light source and has hidden spaces as well; even the walls seem to glow. It will be useless to try to turn off the lights or break them, so we’re all going to have to find a way to work around that.”

Dark frowned at that, knowing how… not effective… he is in the light.

Anti rested a hand on his upper arm, knowing what he was thinking.

“Good news is that the spirits who work there are divided by type there, so we know that only Dusks are going to be guarding the outside and only Dawns are going to be on the inside where all that light is.” Mic continued. “So, as our plan states, we can have our Dusks distract those on the outside while our Dawns deal with the ones inside.” He then turned to Anti. “And we should be able to buy enough time for our chosen hacker to get to the computers and figure out where the Dawn leader is.”

The group nodded in understanding.

“The only problem I’m concerned with is that you’re a Dusk…” Mic frowned at Anti. “Are you sure it would be best for you to go in there?”

“It’s not like anyone else will be able ta hack into the computers.” Anti huffed.

He could also argue that Dark was going to be with him as well, but again, a Shadow Dusk in a blinding light room isn’t very reassuring.

“You two will have to be careful not to get too close to any of the Dawns in there; you have to remember how much damage they could do if you get hit with Dawn energy.” Fate reminded.

“Same goes for them.” Anti grumbled.

They continued restating the plan until it was time to go over what happened after Anti got the information from the computers. Dark took over from there.

“After we break in, we’ll only have a short amount of time before word gets to the main building and to the Dawn, so the faster we can do this, the better. We’ll want to get to the main building as fast as possible after getting the information, as they will still be caught off guard and won’t have too much time to prepare for our arrival, and there is already a large number of his group here at this building. The Dawn would most likely be using the same tactic with the lights at his building, so treat this also as a trial to see what abilities work best in the bright setting.”

The group nodded.

“The Dawn is going to be pretty easy to distinguish if you see him.” Mic added. “He wears a nice white outfit but he has a mask over his face and the only thing you can see are his eyes and white hair.”

“And, although he might be expecting people from Overcast to return some time, he doesn’t know about our involvement in this.” Dark continued, motioning to Anti and himself. “So when we get to his main building, Anti and I will be going in as our humans to hide our auras and get as close as we can under the radar. He should, presumably, go after those who are already switched to their spirits with their auras being easily detected while the humans go unnoticed.”

Mark and Jack weren’t exactly ecstatic about the idea of going into the main base of a terrifying organization as… themselves… but Dark assured them that they would be safer by doing that with the enemies’ attention on the other spirits.

And so, with their plan confirmed, they moved on to the first part.

Since Fate was a Dimension Dusk, she had the ability to warp their surroundings and could essentially clear a path for Dark and Anti to get through to head towards the computer room. They did bring up Anti’s teleportation ability, but he won’t be able to use that unless he knew the area, and since the building is foreign to him, it wouldn’t be a good idea to try.

The group made their way over to the mini base, getting within eyesight before starting with their initial attack.

As soon as the Dusks that were guarding the mini base realized that there were other spirits nearby, Dark, along with other allied Dusks, surprised them with a long ranged attack. Anti snickered as he watched one of Dark’s shadows rise up from the ground around a clump of enemy Dusks and throw them around like ragdolls.

The enemies eventually found where they were hiding and they felt as the ground below them shook with one of the enemies abilities, so they decided to run out.

As the plan stated, the allied Dusks fought against the enemy ones, keeping the attention on them as Fate, Dark, Anti, and the allied Dawns escaped to the mini base; a combination of short ranged teleportation, gliding, and dimension bending to easily get around the Dusks.

They ran into the first room, hearing the yelling and fighting from the Dusks outside, and was greeted by equally as angry Dawns on the inside.

“Alright, it’s party time!” Fate yelled before she flung her hand out and snapped her fingers, bending the reality of the room creating a sort of tunnel between the Dawns that led to a room in the back.

Dark and Anti nodded as they sprinted through the tunnel, blocking outside attacks, until they reached the end and saw the strange tunnel disappear, leaving them in a room in the back, but empty. Most of the Dawns had ran out to the first room, leaving the back unprotected.

“Find the computers and then we can get out of here.” Dark reminded.

They hastily ran though the building, checking doors and rooms, occasionally running into other spirits who weren’t out fighting, but Anti made quick work of them by throwing knives at whatever part of their skin that was showing. He teased one of them who ended up stuck to the wall with a knife threw his hand.

Dark, although he couldn’t use his shadows in the obnoxiously bright room, could still use his energy, having it wrap around his arm and lash out at anyone nearby, causing them to fall to the ground in a mess.

They heard the fighting growing distant as they kept moving from room to room, and Dark cursed each time a room led to a dead end, wasting precious time and energy.

“Dark! It’s this one!” Anti yelled as he opened a door in a corner room, showing a wall of monitors and a few chairs as well as computers and other consoles and tech on the floor and tables.

Dark and Anti ran in there, but were immediately stopped as a static flashy bars surged up from the ground, trapping them in a cage that was practically drenched in Dawn energy as it closed the gaps between the bars with a clear energy field.

“Shit, dude, some of them got this far.” A Dawn guy said who was in the corner of the room with another Dawn.

“They’re… they’re Dusks! Crap, I mean, not crap, that cage is stuffed full of Dawn energy, they won’t even be able to get close to the walls without getting hurt.” The other Dawn said.

“We need to go get the energy guns in the danger room, c’mon, these guys won’t be goin’ anywhere.” The first Dawn panicked a bit, but the other nodded and they hurriedly left the room.

“Dark, what do we do?!” Anti gasped, feeling the immense Dawn energy from the cage which was making his own body uneasy and slightly nauseous.

“Stay away from the walls.” Dark said quickly, bringing the two of them to the absolute middle of the cage. “Energy that is not compatible with a spirit can act as poison.”

“I- I can… I don’t know if I can teleport through this Dark, if it doesn’t work-"

“You don’t have to.” Dark cut him off.

They were both on edge from being in this dangerous situation, but Dark linked their hands together and calmed the two of them down, even if it was only a little.

“Remember what we did before?” Dark asked, and the two of them looked over to the mess of technology in the room.

It was small, but the group of computers and tables casted a shadow on the floor, small enough that the Dawns never worried about it. The shadow itself was against the wall and under the table, that even if a Dusk were to find it and could use it, the shadow wouldn’t be able to do anything outside of that tiny little spot.

But no one ever expected a Glitch Dusk, with how rare they are, and it was even rarer to find one with a connection to another spirit who would be able to exploit the minuscule weakness

No one expects a Glitch Dusk, and that’s why Anti was going to be the one to make this mission a success.

Anti realized what Dark was referring to and focused on his glitching ability, still a little tense from their box of poisonous energy, but took a deep breath and did it none the less. He saw as Dark lifted his other hand slightly, watching as a shadow rose from the little spot under the table and snaked its way over to the wall to their right. The shadow climbed up to the small hatch on the wall, breaking the handle as the door opened, revealing glowing white tubes of Dawn energy leading to wires tangled on the bottom of the compartment and into a path in the wall. Dark maneuvered the shadow into the hatch, messing with some of the mechanics in the box, and broke some of the switches until they heard the energy system shut off. The Dawn energy in the cage flickered a bit before slowly fading away as it stopped getting the flow from the hatch.

They waited a bit until all of the Dawn energy dispersed, then Dark was comfortable enough to grab onto the now normal bars of the cage. He used his energy to bend the bars, darkness flaring around his hands, until they were warped enough to fit through.

Dark bent down and stepped through the opening, Anti following behind, and they stepped up to the computers. They looked at the locked monitors for a second before Anti made a knuckle-cracking gesture before placing a hand on a monitor and one on the connected computer. He watched as the screen flashed, too jumbled and seemingly random for Dark to follow, as the screen flickered quickly from one document to another.

It seemed to only last a few seconds before Anti removed his hands and stepped back, monitor returning to the lock screen as though nothing ever happened.

“Got it, let’s go.” Anti informed before grabbing Dark’s arm and teleporting them past the cage to the door.

Anti still wasn’t familiar with the layout and couldn’t teleport them directly out of it comfortably, but he was able to jump them forward whenever there was a clear path ahead, like a hallway, to save them as many seconds as they could.

The fighting from the others grew louder as they approached the main first room, and as they threw the doors to it open, they everyone throwing attacks left and right, making the room a chaotic war zone. There were a few bodies on the floor, though none seemed to be dead, only weakened, and they found Fate at the front door between the outside with the Dusks along with the Dawns on the inside.

“Fate, let’s go!” Dark yelled to her, getting her attention as she nodded.

They had planned what would happen when they were ready to leave and everything seemed to happen in a blur, adrenaline pumping and the clashing of attacks as their soundtrack.

Fate did her dimension trick, warping the room around, causing the enemies to be confused, but the allies knew what was happening and used the confusion to escape easily, some grabbing others who were on the ground to lead everyone outside. As soon as they were all out of the light room, Dark took hold of a group of allies, making sure everyone in his group had a hand on someone else as he transported them all into the shadows and took them out of the area. Anti put his hand on another linked group, teleporting all of them out of sight. There were a few others who could either fly, levitate, travel in a similar hidden fashion like Dark, or went with Fate who warped the area to clear a safe path for them, and they got everyone to escape to safety.

They all took a second to catch their breaths, still fired up from fighting and know that this was only part of the mission.

“Alright, Fang, take those who won’t be able to fight anymore back to the base, everyone else, we’re moving on to find the Dawn leader.” Fate commanded.

Fang, a Dusk woman with red hair and sharp fangs poking out from her lips, nodded and began gathering up the wounded.

Everyone else turned to Anti, waiting for directions.

“It’s… strangely in the middle of town.” Anti frowned. “It’s a huge ass building, but it’s just kinda there.”

“Oh, hidden in plain sight.” Fate sighed, rubbing the side of her face with a hand.

Anti gave them the address and they all quickly made their way over there, trying to waste as little time as possible. As they made it to the building, very few people out this late at night, Dark and Anti switched to their humans.

“Remember the plan.” Fate tried to reassure Mark and Jack, who were still uncomfortable with going in there. “Just ignore all of the other spirits and find the Dawn, who should be in a room by himself, since egotistical bastards are usually like that. We’re going to distract all of the other spirits and get their attention, so you should be able to sneak through without a problem, but if anything _does_ happen, Dark and Anti can switch with you. That would be the last resort, though, because we want to be able to catch the Dawn off guard with your arrival here. And no matter what, don’t let the Dawn get to your mind.”

Mark and Jack nodded slowly, then looked between one another.

It was time to stop this Dawn once and for all.

They had guessed that someone had sent word to this building about what had happened at the mini base, so they weren’t surprised when they found a swarm of spirits holding their weapons at the base floor.

Mark and Jack were hidden behind the allies who had rushed in, bursts of energy crashing through the air as the walls seemed to rumble with the force. Fate snapped as another tunnel of warped energy showed a path for Mark and Jack to run to the back of the room where stairs were, but the tunnel went up those as well, leading to a clear room.

“Give it a few minutes for everyone to rush down here, then the rest of the building should be clear and you can go find the Dawn.” Fate informed as Mark and Jack ran through the tunnel and up the stairs.

They waited, pressed against the wall and corner, out of sight, as they saw a few others run down to the main floor, joining the fight. They heard war shouts, yelling, things crashing, weapons being thrown, and the two humans winced.

“C’mon, let’s get this done.” Mark squeezed Jack’s shoulder and the two took off running.

They went up another flight of stairs, and although there weren’t a lot of stories, the building had a lot of space. Luckily, it was pretty straight forward and there weren’t any twists and turns to get lost in.

They felt the floor beneath them rumble, and they stopped and looked down, although they couldn’t see anything like that anyway.

“We have to hurry up…” Jack mumbled.

They continued running, but unfortunately hit a split in the path, the different stairways leading to two different passages on either side.

“Shit, now what?” Mark frowned.

_We have to split up._ Dark answered.

“What?”

The floor rumbled again.

_Each second is another second wasted! We cannot wait any longer!_

“Are you serious?”

“Mark, what’s going on?” Jack asked, not being able to hear Dark’s side of the conversation.

“Dark says we need to split up.”

“What?!”

_Stop standing around and go!_

“Jack, we… we have to do this.” Mark’s voice wavered a bit.

Jack quickly walked over to him and hugged him tightly.

It was quiet for a moment, and even Dark didn’t protest the few small seconds of comfort.

“We’re going to come back from this…” Jack mumbled into his shirt. “All of us… we’re going to go home… and eat all sorts of crappy cake.”

“All of it.” Mark chuckled sadly.

They split up when they heard a loud crack from below, Mark taking the right staircase while Jack took the left.

It was quiet… unnerving and quiet… Mark more on edge now that he was alone. Each footstep echoed across the floor and Mark felt his hands shaking.

_I’m not sensing the Dawn’s energy..._ Dark informed as they continued on the path.

Mark let out a shaky breath, finding this to be way spookier than a horror game, and continued looking quickly through the building. He came across a room that reminded him of a museum; pillars on the sides with pedestals of strange objects around in the room. He found a few tables to the side and a carpet line leading from the door to a weird little couch throne like chair in the back.

_Is this…?_ Mark questioned.

_This seems like it would be the Dawn’s room._ Dark added. _But… I don’t sense his presence._

Mark hesitantly looked around, walking slowly, but not seeing anything strange either.

He started getting a headache.

_Gah… this night is just stressful._ Mark complained.

He looked around a bit more, still not seeing the Dawn, and felt his eyes blur a bit from the headache. He thought he saw something from the corner of his eye, but when he whipped around, there was no one there.

_The Dawn’s not here… right? I’m just seeing stuff… all of this adrenaline and stress is playing tricks on me…_

_I should be able to feel his presence if he was in the room…_ Dark responded.

Dark thought back to what Mark had said… about playing tricks… and noticed the blur again.

As realization hit, he was going to switch with Mark, but he realized it too late as a hand forcefully grabbed Mark’s forehead.

Mark was shocked as the man suddenly appeared in front of him, hand on his head, as he felt a shock through his mind, like a bat that suddenly knocked him over.

Mark swatted at the man, getting him to let go as he stumbled backwards.

_Dark!_ He yelled out to him. _He’s here! Dark!_

No reply.

_DARK!_

“My, my… I was not expecting this, no, not at all.” The Dawn hummed.

He was exactly as the others described; he wore a white double buttoned long jacket, reaching all the way down to his calves, white dress pants showing on the bottom. He wore a white mask, reminding Mark slightly of a masquerade mask, but it covered his whole face, only revealing his piercing blue eyes. White hair decorated the top, strands falling down in front of the mask itself to hide the top, and only added to the unknown look.

_Dark, what’s going on?!_

“Your dear Dark is currently locked away in your mind, my friend, and he won’t be making an appearance tonight.” The Dawn answered.

Mark’s head throbbed, still in pain from before and now increasingly stressed.

“I can say you honestly surprised me with your visit, you almost caught me in here, but I managed to deceive your mind so you didn’t see where I was… and hiding my aura is a simple task for me.” The Dawn explained.

The ground shook with another wave of energy from the base floor below.

“Your friends are going to cause such a mess.” The Dawn sighed. “But I appreciate the visit, I really do, it’s nice to get to stretch my wings a bit, metaphorically of course.”

The Dawn sauntered over to Mark, not concerned at all since Dark was no longer an issue.

“I’ve heard of Dark, an interesting fellow he seemed like… but now that I know he has chosen to be an obstacle.” The Dawn sighed as he stared at Mark, only a foot apart now.

“I’ll get rid of you now since I have the chance.”

Mark tried to make a run for it, but the Dawn seemed to have foreseen the attempt because he somehow appeared in front of the door. The Dawn put a hand on Mark’s chest and he suddenly felt a surge of energy run through his body and it _hurt_.

His body couldn’t take the sudden blast of energy, and fell to the floor, where the Dawn kneeled down to finish the job.

“You probably already knew this, but Dawn energy will really mess you up… mortally… so, take this time to say any last words, but without your Dusk to try to stop this… well…” The ground shook again. “Eh, you get the idea.”

The Dawn stood up, leaving Mark’s body tense and struggling on the floor, and walked away, going to the weird throne chair at the other side of the room.

Mark was in pain, like nothing he’s ever felt, like someone poured searing lava into his veins as the Dawn’s flood of energy invaded. He struggled to get up, to try to get on his hands and knees, to find his phone, to do _anything_ but he couldn’t, his body wouldn’t let him.

Dark was gone, wherever he was, he wasn’t responding, and Mark started coughing up blood and some strange blackish purple liquid. His body tensed, curling in on itself, as the Dawn energy was killing him from the inside out. He vomited more blood, which would’ve alarmed Mark is he wasn’t already freaked out, and his vision started going out. He was shaking badly, everything being too much, and the pain never let up, only seeming to get worse.

He tried to yell, voice broken, and only a strangled cry escaped, too weak to be heard from anyone outside of the room. This was how he died…

Mark started crying, thinking about everything that had happened, everything that could have happened, everything he wanted to happen…

He thought about Jack.

What was going to happen to Jack? What was he going to do when he found Mark?

What was the Dawn going to do to Jack?

That last thought caused Mark to cry out again, struggling against the unbearable pain to do anything, even if it was just to text Jack and warn him, but his body stopped moving.

He was conscious, but he couldn’t feel his body anymore… the pain disappeared… and everything felt cold…

_Everything went silent…_

_Everything went dark…_

_Everything disappeared…_

 

…

 

Jack was walking around in an empty room, tense and nervous, but he told himself that he had to be brave for this. Anti told him that they would switch at the first sign of trouble and that he would be able to sense if Dark took over for Mark, and that would most likely cue that Mark found the Dawn.

The ground rumbled a few times from the fighting going on downstairs, but Jack stayed focused and looked through the rooms.

They looked through every room on the left side until they got to a door that started heading towards the right side of the room.

_This would lead to where Mark would be, right?_ Jack questioned.

_Yeah, since we haven’t found any other stairs yet… this might be the last floor or something._

Did that mean that the Dawn’s room was over there? Or was the Dawn just not here? Were they going to be that unlucky to attack the base only to find that the Dawn was never here in the first place?

_Won’t know until we look._ Anti hummed.

The two of them opened the door and went to the right.

They found a few empty rooms, a few weird rooms, a kitchen… and then they arrived at a strange museum like room.

And then they saw it…

The white dressed man sitting calmly on his chair.

The blood on the floor…

The unmoving body…

Jack felt himself go cold…

He slowly walked over to the body…

He kneeled down next to it, sitting back on his heels…

He turned the body over on its back… placing a violently shaking hand on his face slowly.

“M…ar…k…?” He said, barely a whisper.

The body was cold under his hand, eyes still open, but they were dull… empty… lifeless.

Tears fell from Jack’s eyes, softly hitting Mark’s shirt.

“M…mar…” His voice cracked, tears streaming down silently, and everything was so unreal.

Jack went silent… falling so far into denial that he was no longer conscious to the world around him, staring blankly at Mark’s face.

Anti, on the other hand, took over and pulled the lifeless body over to his chest, holding him tightly.

“Darky…” He murmured, clinging to the body, shaking just as much as Jack was.

“Darky… you… you can’t be…”

He buried his face on top of the fluff of hair belonging to the lifeless body.

Anti couldn’t feel his presence… couldn’t feel his pulse, his warmth, his energy, nothing…

The body no longer held the one he loved…

_-“I love you.”-_

Anti felt his own tears fall, black with grief, as he grabbed the body even tighter than before.

“I… I… Darky… I love you… you can’t… you have to say it back.” Anti shook.

“You have to say it back, Darky… you have to say it back.” His voice started getting quicker, getting frantic, getting panicky.

“You have to say it back, say it back, Dark, say it back.” His voice was getting covered with his crying, mouth left open, crackling with agony.

“D-Darky.” His mouth barely moved… and he finally broke.

He let out a scream filled with nothing but despair, face smeared with black tears, and didn’t let up until he ran out of air, only to choke on the intake and scream again. He wailed until his voice hurt, and clung to the body so hard that dots of blood appeared from where his nails were.

The air crackled from Anti’s energy, hovering in the air heavily from his outburst, and Anti yelled Dark’s name again. He felt his form glitching, becoming irregular, and felt his energy become erratic inside of him.

Anti’s never felt this lost before.

He then heard the scruff of boots on the floor, reminding him that someone else was in the room, and tilted his head to look over at the Dawn. He took a raspy breath before setting the body down onto the floor gently, as though it was a fragile piece, and stood up slowly.

“Y…o…U…k…I…l…L…e…D…h…I…m…” he said slowly, head tilted to the side at a disturbing angle, body twitching violently.

“y…O…u…K…i…L…l…E…d…H…i…M…a…N…d…N…o…W…y…O…u…W…i…L…l…P…a…Y…”

He walked eerily slowly to the Dawn, eyes turning black, form becoming electronic, almost like a hologram, and the floor created small circles of energy with each step.

The Dawn didn’t seem worried, only frowned and walked quietly to the side of the room, but narrowed his eyes when Anti’s gaze followed him. He frowned a little more, this time putting his fingers to his temple as he walked back to where he originally was, and eyes widened when Anti’s gaze stayed eerily on him.

“How are you-“

“yOuR tRiCkS wOn’T wOrK oN mE.” Anti said simply, form turning darker, smile growing unnaturally wide, teeth looking horrifyingly sharp.

Anti slowly approached the Dawn, area around him swirling with unnatural glitch energy, lights from the normal bulbs above cracking as glass rained down on them, room rumbling as though there was an earthquake, and a high pitched ring invaded their ears, causing the Dawn to duck his head and wince.

The Dawn finally started getting scared and backed up as Anti got closer. He huffed, though, and when Anti got close enough, he brought a hand up and gripped Anti’s head.

Anti watched him with his unmoving gaze with unholy eyes, not moving, and watched as the Dawn’s expression turned to that of terror when he realized his last mind trick up his sleeve didn’t work.

“tImE's Up.” Anti grinned, eyes turning almost crazy, and grabbed the Dawn’s wrist that was on his head, turning it violently, smiling at the scream that left the Dawn’s mouth. Then, just as quickly, he used the arm to throw the Dawn straight against the wall as a bolt of energy struck him hard and he crumpled onto the floor, blood escaping from his mouth, and passed out.

He wasn’t dead, only unconscious, and Anti didn’t use enough energy to kill him, but he walked creepily slow to the unconscious body to do just that.

Then he felt it, the weak pull from Jack who wanted to see Mark. He could feel Jack’s utter despair, and it reminded him of his own, so he left the unconscious Dawn on the floor and quickly ran back to the lifeless body of his lover.

This time, instead of bringing the body up to his chest, he leaned down, placing a hand on the body’s chest, and the tears returned.

He started crying once more, rocking back and forth, form changing from one that was violent to one that was just defeated, as pained sounds left his mouth. He coughed a lot, not taking even breathes, and he could hardly see with the tears that wouldn’t stop.

He barely registered the sounds from the fight coming from below, and kept trying to find any sign of Dark being alive. His mind reminded him of the time when he almost died on the couch, a time that seemed so long ago, and how Dark shared his energy so he could heal.

Through irrational grief and madness, Anti put both of his hands on Dark’s chest and let out a terrible cry of heartache.

“You can’t die!” He wailed, sending a pulse of his energy into the body, crying more when he couldn’t feel anything on Dark’s end.

“I can’t lose you!” He transferred more of his energy, coughing from not breathing and straining his voice too much.

“I love you, _I love you!_ ” He used more energy, giving Dark everything he had, not caring when he felt himself getting light headed.

“You have to say it back!” He sobbed, tears beginning to ruin the clothes of the body below him that was already gross from blood.

He sent more energy into the lifeless body, feeling it leave himself, waiting for the beat of life to return, and breaking more as each second went by without it.

Anti collapsed onto the body, head resting on the shoulder, hands still on the chest, and he kept pushing energy into it.

Everything started swirling around him, going fuzzy from using up too much energy, but his mind kept telling him _what if he only needs a little bit more, if he only needs a bit more and he’ll come back, if he’ll be okay if you give him everything you have_ and gave a final effort to give the body the last ounce of energy he had.

He felt himself grow sick with a strong urge to vomit, but refused and clung to the body as he vision started going black.

“NO!” He screamed, not wanting to pass out, not wanted to leave the body, thinking that he could stay awake, that he _had_ to, that if he stayed awake, he could figure out a way to bring Dark back, but he was broken, mentally and physically, and he couldn’t stay conscious.

He crawled as close as he could to the body, arms grasping onto the chest, legs over legs, and pressed his face into the neck.

“Dark…” He said weakly, not having the energy to do anything, and watched in utter misery as his vision blacked out and he fell unconscious.

So this is what torture was like…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
> 
> See what I did there? With the notes?
> 
> Comment your feelings! If I did good, then someone cried. I cried.
> 
> As you can see, though, this isn't the end, you have to wait to find out what happens!
> 
> Edit: Someone commented this [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSWIfX_MNCY) for this chapter and it's so... JUST LISTEN TO IT!


	23. What Happened After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, remember that time when I said the Dawn was the bad guy but then you all wanted him to be Felix and suddenly I had to make him not the bad guy? You make story writing difficult :3 but I love you guys!!!!!!!!!! This is what I wrote for you!
> 
> Also, I was going to hold back on this chapter and purposely post it late but I love you guys too much, but WOW YOUR REACTIONS LAST CHAPTER WERE GREAT, I'M SORRY BUT IT WAS AWESOME!
> 
> But as many of you pointed out, the tags say "happy ending" so I'm sure you all knew this was going to happen :3
> 
> Also, "Dnim" won the naming question, pronounced "Dee-nim", but since a lot of you also mentioned "Stephano" that's his teased name

It was quiet.

Anti wasn’t really… awake. He was a core, a small sphere of energy, and didn’t really think much. He couldn’t see what was going on around him, he just… was.

He could feel, though.

And for a long time, he felt broken and empty.

And he was weak.

For a long time, he didn’t want to get better. Dark was gone, and he didn’t want to wake up to a world without him, so he just stayed as a core, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.

 

…

 

Some days, he hallucinates that he feels the familiar warmth of Dark’s aura, only making him sad, and he would curl in on himself if he could. But he knew Dark was not here, and ignored it.

 

…

 

The feeling returns; half of the time it is there, and half of the time it is not, as though the feeling stayed during the day and disappeared at night… or vice versa. When Dark’s aura was there… it stayed there… it stayed there for hours, and then it would go for a while, and then return the next day.

Anti didn’t want to think about it.

 

…

 

He didn’t know how long he spent resting as his core, but Dark’s aura kept returning, and he never noticed until now, but he would feel traces of Jack and Mark visit as well.

Jack…

Oh… poor Jack…

Mark and Dark were gone… and now Anti himself disappeared…

Oh…

 

…

 

Anti felt Dark’s aura return again, but he told himself that he needed to stop hallucinating… he needed to find Jack.

He decided to return to his form.

He blinked his eyes open slowly… not knowing where he was… mind muddled from being nothing but a core for so long. Everything was… bright? And blurry, like his eyes weren’t adjusting properly, but it was also like a relaxing ray of light was streaming in through a window, which was why his eyes were needing to adjust.

It was quiet, but it was a peaceful quiet. He looked around, seeing that he was in a wooden room, decorated with a window that was indeed streaming in light, a table with a pink orchid, a cute wooden chair, some pastel pictures, and realized he was sitting on a futon with an excessive amount of pillows around it.

The light streaming in the window made the room seem like it was glowing, but in a way like it was a dream.

He looked up and saw Dark sitting in front of him, form glowing like a dream as well.

Anti looked at him, saw that he was smiling softly, and returned the smile.

“Dark.”

“Anti.”

They smiled a bit more.

Then tears started streaming silently down Anti’s cheeks.

He leaned forward and fell into Dark’s chest, clutching onto his shirt, and cried.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m so sor- so sorry.” Anti sobbed. “I couldn’t save you, I couldn’t- I’m so sorry.”

Dark’s arms embraced him and let him cry.

“I miss you…” He whimpered. “I miss you s-so much.”

Dark’s hand rubbed gently up and down his back.

“I’m right here, kitten.” He said softly.

“B-but, you’re not _real_.” He sniffled and leaned back to see the hallucinated Dark’s face.

“I… I miss Dark, _my_ Dark…” Anti felt the tears streaming down his face.

“I want my Dark back, I want my Darky.” He sobbed, breaking down into tears again as he buried his face in Dark’s shirt, repeating the phrase that he wanted his Darky back over and over until he had no more tears left to cry, voice disappearing from agony.

“I’m right here.” Dark repeated softly, rocking the two of them back and forth slowly. “I’m right here, baby, I’m right here.”

Anti wanted to believe him, but it was impossible, his Dark was dead.

“You saved me.” Dark murmured quietly.

Anti blinked away lingering tears as he processed what Dark had said.

“My little glitchy kitten, you can cheat death, and you saved me.”

Anti started shaking at the thought that this might actually be the real Dark.

He felt Dark move a hand to move one of Anti’s arms back and linked their hands together, and then felt Dark’s energy like a gentle stream, and it was _real_ , it was real and it flowed into Anti as proof and he didn’t know how to respond.

So Dark responded for him, using his other hand to rub a thumb against Anti’s cheek, wiping away a tearstained trail, and tilted his head up for a small and gentle kiss, one that meant he was real.

Anti made a pitiful sound, and would’ve cried more if he had any tears left, but would’ve cried for a different reason if he did.

He returned to rest his head on Dark’s chest, keeping their hands interlaced, and let out cries without tears, holding on tightly as though Dark would disappear the moment he let go.

Dark let him rest, knowing this was a lot for his mind to take in suddenly, and swayed back and forth slowly.

When Anti finally calmed down enough to speak again, he asked about where they are.

“We’re in Jack’s mindscape.” Dark murmured. “You’ve been here for so long, I was worried you were never going to come back…”

Anti sniffled and looked up to see the lingering concern in his eyes.

“You used up all of your energy that day, you were able to bring me back, but it took a toll on you and you were changed back to your core. Usually it would only take about a day for spirits to regain enough energy to create their form in the mindscape again… but you weren’t coming back.”

Anti remembers the first few days when he didn’t want to be back.

“I couldn’t stay with you, I had to return to Mark’s mindscape whenever he got up, but I would return here every night and sit with you… your core, and waited for you to return.”

So the feeling of Dark’s aura returning when he was a core each day really was Dark…

“Occasionally, Mark and Jack would visit too, but the days kept going on and nothing was changing.”

Everything that Anti thought he was hallucinating… was real.

“How… how long was I like that?” Anti asked.

“I’m not sure, I stopped keeping track, but it doesn’t matter because you’re here now.”

They stayed curled together, eventually laying down on the futon, but Anti tensed up when he remembered the Dawn and about passing out in the Dawn’s base.

Dark soothed him and told him that everything was taken care of, then started explaining about what happened while he was resting as his core.

 

**~*flashback of many many days earlier, shortly after the invasion of the Dawn’s base*~**

 

Mark’s head was groggy, everything feeling weird, but he was able to force his eyes open and squinted at the light. He groaned a bit as he sat up, looking around to see that he was in an unfamiliar room on a bed. There was a large window on the wall directly in front of him and he could tell that he was a few stories up.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.” A voice said, and Mark turned to see Angeline walking into the room.

“What… what happened?” Mark asked, rubbing his head.

“The mission was a success, that’s what happened!” Angeline smiled. “And although there were a few wounded, you and Jack included, there were no casualties!”

“Wait, Jack? What happened to Jack?” Mark asked, still confused as to what happened; he couldn’t even remember what he did at the Dawn’s base that well either.

“I don’t know what happened in there, but during the fighting downstairs, Fate said something about an unusual energy signature coming from Anti, so we went up there and found you and Jack passed out on each other covered in blood with the Dawn on the other side of the room with some blood as well.”

“I remember going into that room… but…?”

“Give it a minute or so and I’m sure your memory will come back, but when Fate found you, she said it seemed like Jack and Anti passed out from overexertion and lack of energy while you were just… it was weird, you barely had a pulse and you were cold, but you were breathing. Fate said you might have had energy overexertion but… it would be cool to know what happened in there. The Dawn wasn’t looking too great either.”

“What happened to him?”

“He is two rooms down with Fate watching him. His story is pre-tty interesting.”

“Wait, shouldn’t we be more concerned about him attacking us again?”

“Oh, we have him strapped up to a chair with Dusk chains, so not only is the human stuck there, but the Dawn has to stay with him to block out the Dusk energy. It’s just enough so it won’t hurt him, but he won’t be able to do anything about it.” Angeline smiled. “But… uh… about his story… do you happen to know a Felix Kjellberg?”

Mark perked up at that.

“Yeah, he’s a good friend of ours.” Mark answered, referring to himself and Jack.

“So… that’s… the Dawn’s human.” Angeline said slowly.

Mark knitted his eyebrows together and frowned.

“What?”

“If you’re feeling alright, I can take you to the room where he’s at so you can hear his story.”

Mark nodded at that and turned to get out of bed, but as he saw the other side of the room, he noticed another bed with Jack laying on it, eyes closed. He walked over to it and hesitated a bit before placing a hand on Jack’s arm.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” Angeline reassured. “You were in a worse state than him anyway, and look at you.”

Mark wanted to stay with Jack, but first he needed to see if it really was Felix who was in the other room and hear what happened.

He follows Angeline into the room where he was being held, seeing the blonde man indeed being strapped to a chair with odd chains and Fate sitting on the couch on the other side of the room, looking bored. Mark walked in front of the man to see his face clearly, seeing that he looked tired with puffy eyes and tearstained cheeks, even though he wasn’t crying now, and blue eyes dulled with fatigue.

When he saw Mark, he brightened up a bit, but still looked out of it.

“Mark… man, am I glad to see you.” He huffed.

“Felix? What… what are you doing here?” Mark brought a chair from the side to sit in front of Felix.

“I was hoping maybe you could tell me that… I… really don’t know what has been happening these past few days… weeks…?”

“Geez, Fe…” Mark frowned, feeling awful about his situation.

He trusts Felix just as much as he trusts Jack, so there must be a logical explanation for the Mind Dawn, right?

“Can you tell me what you do know?” Mark added.

“Oh… Mark… you… you have to help me.” Felix looked like he was about to cry again. “They took Marzia, Mark, they took her away and I don’t even know if she’s in the same country anymore.”

“Who? Who took her?”

“I don’t… I don’t know who they are, just that they’re part of some association… uh… ‘Hollow’ I think is the name… but they took her, god, I don’t even know how long ago that was.” Felix looked distraught just by talking about it. “But… damn it, Dnim did something, didn’t he?”

“Dnim?”

“Or you can call him Stephano, it pisses him off and it’s pretty funny, and I’ve called him that enough times that he’s just given up and responds to it… sometimes at least.”

“Who?”

“He’s my Dawn, but…” Felix sighed. “He… and Marzia’s Dawn, Angel, they were close… and when we found out Marzia, and Angel included, were taken, he went nuts…”

“Oh no…” Mark started to understand what was happening.

“And, unfortunately for me, since Dnim is a Mind Dawn, he knows how to screw with my mind, so when he takes over, I don’t even know what the hell is happening. These past few days have been a blur…”

“So… do you have any idea what he might have been doing while in control?” Mark asked hesitantly.

“Well, Dnim is a nice guy, really, he fuckin’ makes handmade icecream for us and decorates them like fairies for Angel, even though spirits don’t even eat. He made us help a grandma cross the street one time, Mark, a _grandma. cross. the. street._ ” Felix emphasized. “He taught Marzia and I how to ball dance once because he wanted to go to an event with Angel that had ball dancing.”

Mark frowned, thinking that this didn’t sound like the Dawn at all.

“He… really liked Angel… but when she was taken… he went quiet for a while, then I’m not too sure what happened after that. We got a note from the people who took her, something about her being held hostage and we needed to do something if we wanted her back, and Dnim just… lost it I think? I don’t even know what it was we were supposed to do, Dnim never told me, but he never let me know what was going on and he got… weird.”

“Shit… man, this isn’t sounded too great.” Mark hummed.

“We would get letters sometimes from Marzia and Angel, kind of like proof that she was still alive… but…” Felix let out a pitiful sound. “I just want her back, Mark… I don’t know what Dnim has been doing… but he’s a good guy, you have to believe me, we just want to have Marzia and Angel back…”

“I’d like to hear Dnim’s side of the story.” Fate grumbled from the back of the room.

“Me too.” Felix sighed.

“Why don’t we let him explain, then?” Mark asked.

“Because he might attack us as soon as we take off the chains, and even if Felix is a good guy, we just heard from him saying that Dnim screws with his head so he doesn’t have control.” Fate huffed.

“What about if he came out as a spirit separate from Fe?” Mark added.

“We could ‘threaten’ Felix, just so Dnim knows we have his human in a dangerous situation so he doesn’t try anything.” Angeline suggested.

Fate stood up and walked over to Felix, taking off the chains suddenly and put a hand on Felix’s throat, an odd twisted claw like aura around her hand, and held his head back securely.

“One wrong move, dear, and you’re dead.” Fate smirked.

They waited for a bit, then saw the blur of light as Dnim created a form in person.

After seeing Dnim in person, the memories suddenly came back in Mark’s mind, the pain in his head, the attack, the blood…

He tensed up and stared at Dnim in horror.

“You… killed me…?” He gasped.

“I thought I did… but it seems you are alright.” Dnim said plainly, no harshness in his voice, just stating the facts casually.

“You _what_?!” Felix shouted. “You killed Mark?!”

“We just established that I didn’t.” Dnim sighed, looking a bit strange with a mask that covered his face so you couldn’t see the movement of his lips.

“Alright, honey bunches, we all wanna know what’s going on, so let’s get on with it.” Fate cut in.

“Okay… what Felix said was true… people from an association named Hollow took Marzia and Angel for her abilities. Angel is a Recovery Dawn, the best healing type, which makes her extremely valuable to have, but it also means she isn’t the greatest when it comes to offense and fighting; that’s why it was so easy for them to take her…” Dnim sighed as he explained. “But they made a deal… they said they would return her… if I was able to give them other spirits that together equaled the amount of worth that a Recovery Dawn is…”

“Give them other spirits?” Angeline questioned.

“Yes… they wanted me to basically send spirits over to them to join Hollow, so I made an organization here and started gathering as many spirits as I could. I could tell that Hollow only wanted the best of the best, so I sent the good ones to them while everyone else I got stayed with me. I let them do whatever they wanted, told them as long as they brought me new people, I didn’t care, and it ended up being that the Dusks would go out at night and seek out others while the Dawns preferred a more organized approach and searched for people online as well as setting up meetings and that type of stuff.”

“How did you convince people to do your work?” Fate asked.

“Felix is rich. I paid them.”

“So that’s where my money has been going.” Felix pouted.

“And I never let them know exactly what I was doing either, they just thought I was trying to gather spirits to make a powerful association that’ll become unstoppable, and they thought they would be a part of it. When I sent people to Hollow, they thought they were going to visit my association’s partner, which I made up.”

“If you sent people to Hollow, then doesn’t that mean you know where they are and can go get Marzia and Angel?” Mark asked.

“I would’ve already done that if it was that easy.” Dnim sighed, looking defeated. “I don’t know where Hollow is, I just get coordinates from them once in a while telling me where to have the spirits I’m sending wait at. It’s a different spot every time, with different people and different ways to move the spirits; I’ve stayed to watch them pick up the spirits, trying to see if I can get any leads as to where Hollow is, and I even tried to follow them once, but it’s no use.”

“Can you trace the signal from when they send the coordinates back to where it’s being sent and maybe find out where they are?” Mark added.

“I’ve tried everything…” Dnim ran a hand through his hair, looking sad. “I’ve tried that, and it’s so coded and encrypted that I have no chance at finding it.”

They were silent for a while, thinking about everything, putting the pieces together.

“Wait a second…” Mark suddenly realized something. “Dnim… you said you let the other spirits do whatever they wanted as long as they brought back other spirits.”

“Yes.”

“So you never told them specifically to trash the place.”

“No… that was too overboard for my taste, but they wanted to do that so… I didn’t bother.”

“And did you ever attack anyone?”

“Well, I never intended for anyone to actually get hurt, I just wanted to gather spirits and send them over… but when people broke into my main base of operations, I simply defended myself.”

“So when you stayed in that room at your base…”

“I stayed there because I didn’t want to seek anyone else to fight… I never wanted to hurt anyone, but if someone was going to jeopardize my plan and put Angel in danger…”

Mark, with the big heart he had, wanted to give Dnim a chance.

“So… you’re not the bad guy… Hollow is the real group we should be going after.” Mark concluded.

“But there’s nothing we can do, I’ve tried everything…”

“Send me.” Mark nodded, looking more determined than ever.

“What?” Angeline said flatly.

“Dude, this is the guy you tried to _kill_ you.” Fate reminded. “And you want to go to the Hollow organization where they do who-knows-what to the spirits they get.”

“Felix is one of my best friends.” Mark said firmly, looking at Fe and smiling. “And I can tell that Dnim doesn’t want to do this anymore than we want to watch it happen. Guys, we meant to find out the source of the Dusks causing a ruckus and we did, and we know how to stop them. I can go over to Hollow, find Marzia, and get her out of there.”

“But I’m under strict regulations; they said if they find anything suspicious at all, they would kill Marzia and Angel on the spot.” Dnim’s face broke sadly. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone what I’m doing; as soon as they realize I told you, they’d kill Marzia _and_ you.”

“So I’ll fake it.” Mark responded. “Dark can travel in the shadows, we can get Marzia and get the hell out of there.”

“Mark, it’ll be dangerous, we don’t even know what the Hollow base is like! We don’t know if there will be shadows for you to travel with or if you’ll even be able to find Marzia or if she’s even going to be where they take the spirits to in the first place!” Fate protested.

“But I have to try!” Mark exclaimed.

He looked over at Felix and Dnim, and he knew he recognized an emotion on their faces when he saw them, and now he knows what it is.

Heartbreak.

He remembers feeling it when he thought he was going to die and leave Jack.

He knew he would do anything to save him, and the thought of someone taking him away and holding him captive hurt him even more than the thought of dying.

_I’ll do it._ Dark said quietly in the mindscape.

_Dark…_ Mark smiled at his agreement.

“Dark just agreed to it, so it’s final, we’re going, we’ll get Marzia back, and then you can disband your group and won’t have to deal with Hollow ever again.” Mark stood up and grinned, motivated to do this more than ever.

So that’s what they did.

Dark had to take some time to recover, only being able to rest in the mindscape for a while, so Mark spent the time sitting next to Jack’s bed. Jack was still asleep, but everything seemed to be normal for him, he just seemed to need a longer time to recover than Mark. Angeline said that he might be in emotional pain, which could cause the mind to sleep longer than if it was just healing from physical wounds.

It made Mark feel almost heartbroken again to think that Jack might think he was dead, so he bought an excessive amount of flowers, stuffed animals, and little gifts to put around the bed along with a note from him laying right on his lap that was in Mark’s handwriting proving that he was alive.

He wanted to be there when Jack woke up, but Dnim said that the pickup date for spirits was coming soon, and when Dark finally recovered to his normal state, they left to meet with the Hollow crew.

Angeline and Fate assured him that they would make sure Jack was alright and make sure he knew Mark was alive if he woke up before Mark returned.

Mark met with the Hollow crew who led him into a black Camry as they drove to an airport and then moved him into a plane with a bunch of other guards who kept a close watch on him.

He made sure to keep an eye out the window, but subtle enough not to be suspicious, and noted that they went overseas.

That meant it was going to be harder to get back home.

_I will be able to travel in the shadows through the water, it’ll take a lot of energy, but it can be done._ Dark informed as Mark stared at the ocean below.

They landed and Mark fell in line with other spirits who seemed to have been sent there, making sure to act the part of an oblivious human with an equally as oblivious spirit, and searched with the shadows as their cover each night.

The Hollow buildings didn’t have the obnoxious light settings like Dnim had, so it took no effort for Dark to sneak around in the shadows, overhearing others talking about Marzia and locations as well as where she most likely would be hidden.

Even luckier for them, since Angel is a Dawn, Hollow tended to keep her locked up in dark rooms, making it one of the easiest missions for Dark.

They continued snooping around until they figured out exactly where Marzia is, wasting no time to get to her at night. They found her in a dark room guarded with two men on the outside of the door and two men on the inside. Dark skipped the two on the outside, stepping out of the shadows in front of Marzia while he brought up two other shadows to strangle the guards before throwing them to the side and breaking Marzia out.

They heard sirens as the guards on the outside realized someone breached the room, but Dark took Marzia into the cover of the shadows just as quickly as he appeared and they made their escape.

Marzia recognized Mark and squealed with happiness when she realized she was saved, giving him a ginormous hug with a bright smile.

They decided to travel far away from the Hollow base and get a plane ticket there, escaping from the group and returning back home.

When they returned, Felix started balling with happiness at seeing Marzia unharmed and Dnim cried his fair share as well, hugging Angel as though he would never let go.

Jack was awake as well, smiling widely when he saw Mark and buried his face in Mark’s shirt.

“I got your note.” Jack smiled.

“Did you like it?”

“It was so corny, I loved it.” Jack giggled as he moved to give Mark a proper kiss. “Now, no more scaring me like that, alright?”

Dnim got rid of his group, getting them all to return to whatever they did before they met him, and things seemed to return to normal. Dnim apologized profusely, telling everyone that he felt awful for what he had done, especially about almost killing Mark since he was the one who saved Marzia and Angel, but Mark told him he understood it was irrational acts of a mourning lover and knew that he was a good person at heart.

Felix, Marzia, Dnim, and Angel all insisted that they find some way to pay them back, though, and asked to join their association, saying that they would gladly offer their skills whenever they were needed.

Dark said having a powerful Mind Dawn and a valuable Recovery Dawn would be outstanding, but he wanted to confirm it with Anti first.

But that was the thing, they hadn’t heard from Anti in a while. Jack said he’s gone silent, so, when they returned to Mark and Jack’s home, they went to sleep as Mark and Dark joined Jack’s mindscape to look for him.

They found Anti in one of the rooms of the wooden shrine house, but he wasn’t in a form, it was his core.

Felix and Marzia understood the situation and said they would gladly wait for Anti’s opinion, being the other member of Nightfall, and waited at their own home.

So, each night when they went to bed, Dark would visit Anti’s core, waiting for him to return and hoped that his presence would let Anti know how much he cared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed that the chapter number has been updated to end on chapter 24, so next chapter will be the last, but it's not the end! If you guys want, this can become a series!  
> I'm seriously going to miss your comments and this little journey, though, it was so nice *sniffle*
> 
> I was thinking, though, about making a discord group or some type of chat room because one of you offered to give me plot ideas to continue the story and I thought it'd be nice to have an easier place to chat rather than comments. We can also just be there to say hi too, doesn't have to be purely about the story, get to know some awesome people, suggest ideas, share terrible art together :3 I don't know if any of you would want to, but I thought I might as well throw it out there.


	24. Happy to be with You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The short ending chapter of a beautiful journey~
> 
> And really long end notes o-o  
> With the Discord Server at the bottom!

Dark explained what happened while Anti was gone, but even so, when Anti saw Dnim again for the first time… let’s just say he wasn’t happy.

The question of whether they would join Nightfall or not still remained, and although the humans all agreed on it, Anti practically growled at Dnim and watched him closely with a glare whenever they were in the same room together. He would start treating Dark like he did with Jack, getting protective whenever Dnim was there.

Dark tried to calm him down about it but Anti would argue that they still couldn’t trust him and such a sudden change wasn’t normal.

Even Felix admitted that Dnim was never the same after the recent events, like a part of his innocence was gone for good, but he also wanted to defend his own spirit as well.

One day Felix and Dnim disappeared and Marzia visited the others explaining that Dnim left to try to “find” himself or something weird like that, adding that he seemed troubled lately.

Days went by and the only contact they had with the two of them were a few texts from Felix to Marzia just updating her that he was still alive basically.

Anti said that he deserved to go think about the shit he’s done, but Jack made him feel at least a little guilty for fighting with the guy every chance he got ever since the incident.

When they finally returned, Felix seemed to be the same and Dnim looked a little more collected. He didn’t speak much, though, often looking tired.

They were all relaxing at Mark and Jack’s house and Anti floated over to Dnim, eyes narrowed and inspecting him closely, getting a quirt glance in response, and Anti finally sighed.

“Fine, if you join our group then it just means we can keep a close eye on you.” Anti huffed and crossed his arms.

Dark chuckled lightly, subtly mentioning that the same tricks never work on him twice, and Dnim lightened up, just a tiny bit, at the “threat”.

Angel was excited to join, saying that she had always wanted to be part of a team like the superhero movies show it as and wanted to prove that her abilities would be a great asset to the team. Her symbol was made to be a cute silver circlet around her head; the mark of Nightfall resting in the middle of her forehead.

Anti seemed to laugh at that and said they were more like antiheros, pun not intended, but thought it might be nice to have some “purity” to the group.

Dnim was silent when he was added to the group, but the others knew in time, things would get better. His symbol was made into a ring.

Before Felix and Marzia left, Dnim murmured that he would make it up to them somehow, still looking worried, but smiled none the less.

 

…

 

Jack smiled as he was resting in the backyard with Chica, looking up at the sky and watching the colors fade from yellows to purples as the sun set. Mark sat down next to him and bumped his shoulder.

“Whatcha thinking, Jackaboy?”

“The Dusks are gone… and the Dawns for that matter too… I can go back to my own apartment now.”

Mark froze up at that, not wanting Jack to leave, but not wanting to keep him here if he didn’t want to stay either.

“Oh… if that’s…”

“Oh, c’mon Mark, you don’t think I actually want to leave, do you?” Jack started chuckling.

“Don’t scare me like that then.” Mark pouted and bumped Jack’s shoulders with more force this time.

“You’ve taken my heart, might as well keep the rest of me too.” Jack turned to look back at the sky again.

Mark smiled and leaned his head on Jack’s shoulder, watching the sky with him and thinking about the future ahead of them.

…

They got a text from Felix telling them to meet them somewhere, so Mark and Jack got in their car and drove over there, seeing a very nice multiple story building in a nice part of town, farther from the mess of L.A., but not secluded.

Felix and Marzia greeted them at the door and were excited to show them around the place, telling them that this was their new home, except it didn’t look exactly like a practical house.

“The place where we’ll be living at it the top three floors.” Marzia explained. “But the rest of this will be for Nightfall!”

“Wait… this is our association’s building?” Jack gasped.

“It took us a while to set everything up, but we have a tech room, a training room, an equipment room, and of course, a relaxing room with a cupboard full of cupcakes right now.

“I like cupcakes.” Jack smirked.

“So the next time something happens, we can meet together here and plan it out and prepare for… whatever it is we’re preparing for!” Marzia smiled.

“And we can have someone be the ‘guy in the chair’.” Felix winked as he made the reference.

“This is pretty cool, guys.” Mark smiled.

 

…

 

Mark, Jack, Dark, and Anti were all sitting together watching a movie, not worrying about a thing as they all relaxed together.

Mark looked at them all and thought about the past events…

When Jack first moved in and he wondered what type of spirit he had…

Finding out he had a Dusk who was pretty lively…

Comforting him in times of need…

Watching as their Dusks started to train together and get closer themselves…

Their first kiss…

It almost seemed like a dream, like he would wake up any moment now and everything would be a distant memory, but he was brought out of his thoughts when Jack grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but how about you take a break from your thoughts and just relax here.” Jack hummed.

“Just thinking about how happy I am to be with you.” Mark smiled.

“Oh, well in that case, do continue.” Jack chuckled a little.

Living with spirits sure was difficult sometimes, but Mark wouldn’t change a thing. He was happy, Jack was happy, their spirits were happy…

And what could he say? Their spirits made their lives exciting; he sure thought his life was turning into a movie with the strange and fun things that happened.

The first time he met Dark, he was nothing but upset, dreading his future of living with a Dusk, but now he’s learned that sometimes things that seem bad at first turn out to be one of the greatest gifts he could ever get.

He looked over at Jack and smiled, holding him close and turning to continue watching the movie.

“I’m happy to be with you to, ya goof.” Jack hummed.

Whatever may be in store ahead, Mark knew he could take it head on as long as Jack was by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you guys, you've made this past month of writing totally worth it; it was super tiring, but fun none the less :3
> 
> I want to explain to you all where I got the inspiration and idea to write this story, so here's what happened:
> 
> I have anxiety, and long story short, I'm constantly afraid of everything and terrified of failure. Then, each night when it's time to go to sleep, my brain decides it wants to remember all of the mistakes in my life, making the whole "sleeping" thing hard to do, but I've found a way to get around it; I daydream stories. I create made up worlds and daydream about a life without problems, where someone is always there to save the day, and it's usually based on characters I know, or in this case, youtubers. So, for a long time I fell asleep to random short stories that were fluffy; a lot of times I would imagine Jack/Anti getting hurt and Mark/Dark were there to save them, sharing their energy to make them feel better (ch.6), many times I thought of Jack having nightmares and Mark/Dark would rush over there to make them go away (ch.2), sometimes they were relaxing cuddle sessions just to comfort them and reassure them everything would be alright (ch7/8/13/14), or a peaceful night under the stars (ch.19), and even the scene where it looked like Mark was dead, I knew Jack and Anti would save him, would be there, would make everything okay. I knew there was going to be a happy ending, nothing bad was ever going to happen, which is why I put "happy ending" tag on the very first chapter. All of these daydreams were never connected, they were all separate, but I thought that maybe there was at least one other person who would be happy with these stories as well, so I decided to try to put them into one story to put on here, so it's not exactly perfect, there were mistakes, things didn't add up all the way, it was a bumpy road, but it was a fun journey none the less. I know some people won't exactly like the ending I have, seeing as there is no bad guy and everything seemed to clear up without a problem, but that's how my mind wanted my story to go; I've always wanted to have an ending where everything was going to be alright, nothing to worry about, and everyone was happy. I hope you guys will think that's alright to ^^
> 
> Your comments really did cheer up a girl who thought her story wouldn't mean much, thank you <3
> 
> [My tumblr :3](https://galaxykitty42.tumblr.com/)  
> [TheBestBoos - Discord Server](https://discord.gg/Dvz7AxB)  
> https://discord.gg/Dvz7AxB


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